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Digitized by the Internet Arciiive 
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AROUND THE WORLD: 



SKETCHES OF TRAVEL 



THROUGH MANY LANDS and OVER MANY SEAS. 



By E. D. G. prime, D.D. 



IVITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS. 



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NEW YORK: 

HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, 

FRANKLIN SQUARE. 
1872. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by 

Harper & Brothers, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



G 4- 



TO 
MY BELOVED AND VENERABLE 

MOTHER, 

WHO, BEYOND THE GATE OF FOURSCORE, GAVE ME HER PARTING 
BLESSING, AND WATCHED FOR MY RETURN; 

WHO NOW CALMLY AWAITS HER SUMMONS TO THE BETTER 
COUNTRY, 

THIS VOLUME 
IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED, 



PREFACE. 



The journey of which the following pages contain a 
running account was undertaken by the writer mainly for 
the recovery of health, but also for the general purposes 
of travel and observation. The volume was designed, not 
in any measure as an exhaustive account of what is to be 
seen, and learned, and enjoyed in such a tour (a score of 
volumes would not contain the record), but to give to the 
intelligent reader suggestive glimpses of the world of in- 
terest which such a journey affords. The time devoted to 
it, a single year, may seem short when the great extent of 
land and sea is taken into account, but the facilities of 
travel are so great at the present day that more may now 
be compressed into a year than formerly into two or three. 

ISTor was the tour made so rapidly as might be supposed. 
The actual traveling time in going round the world has 
been reduced to seventy-five days, distributed as follows : 
From New York to San Francisco, by rail, six days ; from 
San Francisco to Yokohama and Hong Kong, by steam- 
ship, twenty-seven days (this vo3^age might be made with 
perfect ease, at a little more expense of coal, in twenty-two 
days) ; from Hong Kong to Calcutta, by steam-ship, twelve 
days ; from Calcutta to Bombay, via Allahabad, by contin- 
uous rail, a journey of 1450 miles through the heart of 
India, three days ; from Bombay to Suez, by steam-ship, 
eleven days ; from Suez to Paris or London, by' steam-ship 
and rail, six days ; from London to IN'ew York, ten days. 
This is taking the most direct route, and does not include 



viii PREFACE. 

excursions in various directions to and through different 
countries on the way, but it leaves between nine and ten 
months of the year to be spent where and in what way the 
inclination of the traveler may suggest. Having previous- 
ly become familiar, by travel, with many of the countries 
of Europe, the writer devoted the greater part of his time 
to more eastern lands, spending two months in Japan and 
China, the same in India, and a portion of the remainder 
in Egypt and Western Asia. Taking a single year, and 
starting at the right time, enables the traveler to be in 
each country, and on every sea, at the most favorable sea- 
son ; whereas a longer period would inevitably bring him 
into some Oriental region in midsummer, when the heat is 
almost intolerable even for residents, or among the typhoons 
and cyclones of the tropical seas. 

For the same reason he must needs travel westward, or 
he will as inevitably find himself in some part of the world 
at the season when he would wish to be any where else. 
The natural order, with the sun, is the only practicable 
course, excepting at great expense of comfort, and no little 
exposure of health and life. 

The journey detailed in this volume was arranged, with 
regard to these contingencies, so accurately, that the high- 
est range of the thermometer occurring in its whole extent 
was in crossing our own continent at starting, and in land- 
ing at New York on the return; and yet, in different 
parts of Asia that were visited, the degree of heat during a 
large part of the year varies from 100° to 130° Fahrenheit 
in the shade. In India, the thermometer often stands in 
summer at 120° and 130° during the day, and does not fall 
below 100° at night; but we neither saw frost during the 
entire year, nor a higher degree than 89 of the thermom- 
eter. 

The precision with which such a journey can be ar- 



PREFACE. jjj 

ranged beforehand, with the present facilities and regular- 
ity of travel, may be gathered from the writer's experience. 
He had planned his entire excursion several months before 
setting out, with the times of arrival and departure for 
each country that he expected to visit ; and until reaching 
Europe, where his plans were intentionally left uncertain, 
he was scarcely a day out of time at any stage of the jour- 
ney. He had arranged to be at Calcutta on the 1st of De- 
cember, to spend that month and the following (the only 
two months suitable for traveling) in India, and was there 
on the 3d, having accomplished his plans of travel in Ja- 
pan and China with equal precision. ISTearly six months 
before leaving home he had appointed to spend the first 
week of January, 1870, in the north of India, to be pres- 
ent at the religions anniversary of the Week of Prayer. 
He crossed the first range of the Himalaya Mountains the 
last day of the old year, and about an hour before the new 
year commenced alighted at the home of a friend in the 
beautiful valley of the Dehra Doon. He had engaged to 
meet at Cairo,- on the 15th of February, his brother, Wil- 
liam C. Prime, who had started eastward the week before 
he started west, and was there at the appointed time. His 
brother was detained by head winds up the Nile, and they 
did not meet ; but on reaching home and comparing notes, 
they had the satisfaction of learning that they had spent 
two days together in Yenice at different hotels, a few 
squares apart, without knowing it. He had arranged to be 
in Paris on the 1st of June, and was there on that day, and 
at home again punctually at the end of the year, the last 
of July. 

The pleasure of the excursion was greatly enhanced to 
the writer by the presence of the one who is making with 
him the voyage of life, without whom it would not have 
been undertaken. Although an invalid, she accomplished 



X PREFACE. 

the journey with, far less fatigue than was anticipated. 
They enjoyed, during the greater part of the time, the very 
pleasant company of B. B. Atterbury, Esq., his daughter 
and son, Miss Mar}'^ Parsons, and Mr. Kilian Yan Rensse- 
laer, all of New York, who also made the entire circuit. 
Many agreeable traveling companions, of numerous nation- 
alities, were met with by the way. To speak of all the 
pleasures and courtesies received from friends resident in 
the countries visited would require a separate volume. It 
is already written in our hearts — but not to be published. 

For the encouragement of future travelers around the 
world, it is well to state that the journey was made with- 
out accident of any kind; without the occurrence of se- 
rious illness to any of the party ; without missing a steam- 
er or a train ; without detention for a single day, sca,rcely 
for an hour ; and without the loss of the most trifling arti- 
cle of baggage. More than once were we in peril on the 
land and on the sea, but under the care of a kind and 
watchful Providence we made the circuit of the earth and 
returned to our home in safety, all the objects of our jour- 
ney attained — health, pleasure, instruction — and a world of 
information concerning many lands and people gathered,, 
which will be a life-long source of enjoyment. 



CONTENTS. 



-t- PAGE 

NEW YOEK TO SALT LAKE 17-24 

Early Voyages around the World. — Magellan, Drake. — Pacific Railroad. — Palace 
Cars.— The Mississippi. — The Missouri. — Omaha. — Meeting a Train. — Indians. 
— Prairie-dog Villages.— Cheyenne. — Laramie City.— Sabbath on the Plain. — 
Rocky Mountains. — Echo and Weber Canons. — Devil's Gate. 
Illusteation : Prairie-dog Village, 22. 

n. 

THE MORMONS 25-35 

Uintah Station.— Stage Ride.— Salt Lake Valley.— Wonderful Fertility.- Irriga- 
tion. — Salt Lake City.— Brigham Young. — ^Mormon System.— The People.— Con- 
dition of the Women Joe Smith's Sons.^United States Troops. — Tabernacle. 

— Temple. — Fugitives. 
Illusteation : View on Salt Lake, 25. 

III. 

CALIFORNIA , 35-45 

Sierra Nevada Mountains. — Union Pacific Railroad. — Cape Horn. — Importance 
of Pacific Railroad. — Darien Canal. — Reaching San Francisco on Time. — Review 

of Journey.— A magnificent City. — Furs in August.— Seal Rock Climate of 

' California.— No Rain in Summer.— Fruits: Grapes, Figs, and Pomegranates. 
Illusteation : On the Sierra Nevadas, 36. 

IV. 

THE YOSEMITE VALLEY AND THE BIG TREES 46-68 

Few Visitors from California. — Severe Journey. — How to go. — San Joaquin Valley. 
—Garrote.— Horseback Ride.— Mrs. Gobin.— Descent into the Yosemite Valley. 

— Mr. Colfax — Hutchings's Hotel.— Yosemite Fall. — Sentinel Rock Domes. — 

Bridal Veil. — Mirror Lake. — ^Vernal and Nevada Falls. — Trout Fishing. — Inspi- 
ration Point.— The Big Trees.— Fruit-ranches. 
Illusteations : View of the Yosemite, 46. — Yosemite Fall, 53. — Pall of the Bridal 
Veil, 55.— Cathedral Rocks, 56.— Mirror Lake, 57.— Vernal Fall, 58. 

V. 

ON THE PACIFIC 69-85 

Steam-ship Japan. — Sabbath Services.— Not meeting the Steamer. — Flying Fish. 
— Lunar Rainbow. — "The Ocean Wave" Newspaper. — Chinese Concert. — Trial 
of the Purser. — Dropping a Day. — Where does the Day begin ? 
Illustration : Flying Fish, 72. 



xii CONTENTS. 

VT 

' -■- PAGE 

EXCURSIONS IN JAPAN 85-109 

First View of Japau.— Gulf of Yeddo. — Typhoon. — Yolioiiama. — Coolies.— Excur- 
eion to Daiboots. — Kanagawa.— The Bamboo. — Japanese Ponies. — Beautiful 
Scenery.— Statue at Daiboots. — Going to Yeddo.— The Yakonins.— Bettoes. — 
The Tokaido.— Yeddo.— Niphon Hotel. — Japanese Guard. — Temples.— Rev. Mr. 
Verbeck. — Book-stores. — Atangoreama. — Tycoon's Palace. — Shiba. 
Illustrations : Entrance to the Gulf of Yeddo, 86 Japanese Temple, 91. — Vil- 
lage Life in Japan, 93. — Statue at Daiboots, 95. — Bettoes, 99. — Japanese Kango, 
101 Japanese Resting, 102. — Tea-garden near Yeddo, 103 Belfry in Court- 
yard of Temple, 106. 

VII. 

JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE 110-125 

Territory.— Mikado.— Daimios. — Kinsats and Niboos.— Foreign Intercourse. — 
Character of the People.— Politeness. — Ladies' Dress.— Obi.— Dyeing Teeth 
black. — Shaving Heads.— Sandals. — Peculiar Customs.— Painting and Drawing. 
— Porcelain and Lacquer-ware. — Inlaying of Metals. — Beggars. — Saki. — Execu- 
tions. — Burial.— Religions. — Shintooism. — Buddhism, — Confuciauism. — Chris- 
tianity. -Prospects. 
Illustrations: Japanese Saluting, 115.— Female Hair - dresser, 116.— Japanese 
Horse-shoe and Saddle, 119.— Group of Horses, 119.— Athletes, 120.— Behead- 
ing, 122. 

VIII. 

INLAND SEA OP JAPAN 126-132 

Suwonada. — Three Thousand Islands. — Cones. — Hiogo. —Osaka. — Tokaido. — 

Straits of Simoni-saki. — Panorama of Islands. — Pappenberg.— Nagasaki. — Gale 

in Eastern China Sea. — Yanktse-kiaug River. 
Illustrations : View in the Inland Sea, 126. — Entering the Inland Sea, 128.— 

Pappenberg Island, 130. 

IX. 

SHANGHAI TO HONG KONG 132-144 

Approaching ShanghaL — Woosung River. — Chinese Forts. — War-junks.— City of 
Shanghai. — Taeping Rebels. — Foreign Town. — Wheelbarrows.— Chinese City. 
— Filth and Smells. — Chinese Criminals. — Modes of Punishment. — Duke of Ed- 
inburg. — International Boat-race; Americans victorious. — Pekin.— Nankin. — 
Suwonada Steamer. — Hong Kong. — Happy Valley. — Victoria Peak. — Schools. — 
Pigeon English.^Colonial Prison. — Motto on Post-office. 
Illustrations ; Chinese Trading-junk, 133.— Chinese Punishment, 137. — Chinese 
Temple, 139.— Hong Kong, 141. 

X. 

CANTON AND ITS SIGHTS 144-159 

Early Commerce. — Steamer. — Bogue Forts. — Pearl River. —Villages. — Pawn- 
brokers.— Pagodas.— Whampoa.— River -population.— Boats Streets. — Shah- 

Miu.— Streets of Canton.— Fan - kwai.— Puntinqua Garden.— Temples.— Mer- 
maid.— Five Hundred Gods. — Priests.— Honam. — Chinese Dress.— Processions. 
— Funeral. 
Illustrations : Chinese Pagoda, 146.— Fort near Canton, 149.— Sedan Chair, 150. 

XL 

CHINESE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 160-172 

What they eat.— Birds' Nests.— Dog-markets.— Rats.— Porkers.— Fruits.— Small 
Feet.— Tea; Growth.— Black and Green, how prepared.— Contrarieties of the 



CONTENTS. xiii 

Chinese. — Dress Language. — Coffins. — Competitive Examinations a Key to 

Chinese Character. 
Illusteation : Chinese Small Foot, 163. 

-^J-J-. PAGE 

RELIGIONS OP CHINA 1T3-183 

Confucianism. — Buddhism. — Tauism. — Superstition. — Ancestral Worship. — 

Cheating the Gods.— Inferior Gods. — Christianity in China. — Effect of Opium 

War. — ES;ample of irreligious Foreigners. — Difficulty of acquiring the Language. 

— What Christian Missionaries have accomplished.— Medical Missionaries. — Dr. 

Kerr.— Oliphant & Co. 
Illustbationb : Casting Lots before a God, 175.— Prince Kung, 111. 

XIII. 

MACAO, SINGAPORE, AND PENANG 183-203 

Stories of Pirates. — Portuguese at Macao.— Assassination of Amiral.— Churches. 
— Our Lady of Sorrow. — Camoens's Garden.— Captain Endicott. — Hon. Caleb 

Cushiug.— Leaving for Calcutta Steamers.— The Hindostan.— Captain, Crevp, 

and Passengers. — The Monsoon. — A Storm. — Walter M. Lowrie.— 180th Degree. 
— Singapore a Paradise. — Cocoanuts, Nutmegs, Cinnamon, etc. — Gardens.— Mr. 
P. Yoakim. — Rev. Mr. Keasbury. — Rev. Mr. Grant. — Major Malan. — Straits of 
Malacca. — Penaug. — Rev. Mr. Macdonald. — Chinese. — Mahomet Noordin. — 

Tropical "Vegetation Boa Constrictors. — Bay of Bengal. — Turtles.— Snakes. — 

East Indiamen. 
Illustbations : Macao, 1S5.— Coolie Barracoons at Macao, 187. 

XIV. 

CALCUTTA 203-221 

Hoogly River. — Lady seized by Tiger.— Palms and Acacias. — Banyan Tree. — 
Palace of ex-King ofOude. — Scene at Landing. — Spence's Hotel. — Hindoo Serv- 
ants.— Aroused by Jackals. — Crows, Kites, and Adjutants. — "City of Palaces." 
— Maidan. — Gay Scene. — Residences. — Public Buildings. — Tanks. — Watering 
Streets. — Institutions.— Colleges.— Asiatic Society.— American Zenana Mission. 
Serampore. — Carey, Ward, Marshman,Judson, Henry Martyn, Dr. George Smith. 
— Hindoo Festival. 
Illusteation : Entrance to the Hoogly, 204. 

XV. 

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA; EUROPEANS, ETC 221-234 

Antiquity of the Nation. — Alexander the Great— East India Company. — Present 
Rulers. — Viceroy. — Education. — University, Colleges, and Schools.— Complicity 
with Idolatry.— European Population.— Eurasians. — Heat.— Punkas. — Living. 
— Rainfall.— Sand-storms.— American Ice. 
Illtjstkatiou ? A Sand-storm, 238. 

XVI. 

PUBLIC WORKS, PRODUCTIONS, ETC 234-243 

Roads. — Canals Telegraph.— Railways. — Opium. — The Poppy.— Preparing the 

Drug.— Opium Market. 

XVII. 

THE NATIVES OF INDIA ; CASTE, ETC 244-254 

Native Society. — Hindoos. — Mohammedans. — Sikhs. — Parsees. — Costumes. — 
Jewels. —Women of India. —Native Wealth. — Food. — Caste. —Brahmins. — 
Kshatryas. — Vaishyas. — Sudras. — Breaking Caste. — Pariahs, 



xiv CONTENTS. 

XVIII. 

CALCUTTA TO BENARES 254-270 

Leaving Calcutta. — GrandDurbar.— Howrah.— East India Railway.— Cold Nights. 
— Sceueiy. — Plain of India. — Mogul-Serai.— The Hindoo Holy City. — Monkey 
Temple.— The Gauges.— Man Mandil.— Grand Mosque.— Ghauts.— Brahminy 
Bulls.— Burning the Dead. — Kajah of Benares.— Elephant Ride.— Golden Tem- 
ple. — The Ancient City. 
Illtjsteations : The Grand Mosque, 262.— Burning the Dead, 203.— A Hindoo 
Temple, 268.— Ruins near Benares, 2T0. 

XIX. 

BENARES TO ALLAHABAD 271-281 

Crossing the Ganges by Moonlight.— Chunar.— Goddess Kali. — Thugs. — Discov- 
ery and Suppression. — Major Sleeman's Narrative. — The Jumna at Allahabad. — 
Railroad Bridge.— Rev. Mr. Walsh.— The City of God.— Fortress.— Great Mela. 
— Pilgrims. — Faquirs. — Government Connection with Idolatry. 

XX. 

THE MUTINY ; CAWNPORE AND LUCKNOW 281-296 

Diversity of Opinions.— Anniversary of Battle of Plassey. — Greased Cartridges. — 
Chupatties. — Outbreak at Dundura. — Meerut. — Delhi. — Allahabad. — Agra.— 
Cawnpore. — Nana Sahib. — General Wheeler. — Massacre of Soldiers.— Massacre 
of Women and Children.— Well at Cawnpore. — Memorial Garden.— Monument. 
— Massacre of Missionaries. — Suttee Chowra Ghaut.— Luckuow. — King of Oude. 
—Residency.— The Siege.— Havelock.— Sir Henry Lawrence.— Persian News- 
paper. — "Voyage round the World." 

XXI. 

AGRA AND THE TAJ 296-310 

Only Rain in India.— East Indian Hotel.— Bed and Bedding.— Fort and Palace.— 
Heavy Cannon. — Pearl Mosque. — The Taj.— Gateway. — Park.— Shah Jehan.— 
Noor Mahal. — Mosque and Jowab. — Cost of Building. — Terraces. — Minarets. — 
Description. — Interior.— Sarcophagi^— Inscriptions. — Song and Echo.— Chris- 
tian Village atSecuudra. — Tomb of Akbar.— His Palaces and Wealth.— Arrested 
for Stealing. 
Illttsteation : The Taj {Frontispiece), 301. 

XXII. 

DELHI 311-320 

Old Delhi.— Shah Jehan.- Gates.- Chandnee Chowk.— Fortress.— Diwau-a-im.— 
Diwan-i-khas. — Peacock Throne. — The Palace. — Jumma Musjid. — Kootub- 
Minar.— Iron Pillar.— Divers.— Ruins.— Rev. James Smith.— Blowing up the 
Magazine. — Post-office at Delhi. 

XXIII. 

AMONG THE HIMALAYAS 320-328 

Saharunpur. — Presbyterian Mission. — Government Stud. — Omnibuckus. — Horses. 
— Road over Sewalic Range. — Drawn by Coolies.— Leopards. — Tiger-hunting. — 
Doctor Fayrer.— Duke of Edinburg.— Wild Elephants.- Snakes.— Valley of 
Dehra Doon Rev. Mr. Woodside. 

XXIV. 

ON THE HIMALAYAS 828-336 

Ascending the Mountain.— Jhanpan.— Monkeys.— Wild Peacocks.— Mussoorie.- 



CONTENTS. XV 

Landour ^View from the Summit.— Thibet and Cashmere.— Dr. Kellett.— The 

Sabbath.— Meneely's Bell. — Tea Plantations.— Praying Machine. — Pacific Rail- 
road. — Week of Prayer. — Amballa. — Eev. Dr. Morrison. — Lodiana. — Cabool 
Princes. — The Koh-i-noor Diamond ; its History. 
Illhstkations : A Gorge in the Himalayas, 320.— A Praying Machine, 333. 

XX V. PAGE 

LODIANA TO BOMBAY 336-343 

Suttee at Cawnpore. — Jubbulpore.— Colony of Thugs.— Journey by Dak-gharry. 

— The Nerbudda. — Wild Horses. — Night Journey. — The Jungle. — Tigers 

Loading Eevolver. — An Accident. — Dak - bungalows. — Nagpore. — Mahratta 
Country.— potton.—Egutpoora.— Tunnels. 

XXVI. 

BOMBAY 343-350 

Island of Bombay. — Portuguese Colony. — Harbor. — Population. — Varieties of 
Races. — Buildings. — Parsees. — Towers of Silence. — Malabar Hill.— Burning the 
Dead. — Caves of Elephanta. — Mr. Kittredge. — Buddhist Monastery at Kenhari. 
—Dr. Bhau Daji.— Indian Jugglers.— Cocoanut Grove.— Hospital for Animals. 
Illusieation : A Bullock Carriage, 345. 

XXVII. 

BOMBAY TO CAIRO 350-361 

Leaving India. —British Rule. — Fearful Scene at Sea: two Men overboard. — Aden. 
—Broad-tail Sheep.— Red Sea.— Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb.— Constellation of the 

Southern Cross. — Mocha. — Abyssinian Hero. — Djiddah, Port of Mecca Gale. — 

Suez. — Crossing of the Israelites. — Dr. Robinson.— The Suez Canal. — Chartering 
a Steamer. — Ismailia. — Reaching Cairo. — Shepheard's Hotel Strange Cham- 
bermaid. 
Illtjstkations : Suez, 355. — Night on the Canal, 359. 

XXVIII. 

CAIRO TO JERUSALEM 362-3T5 

The Citadel.— Caliphs and Mamelukes.— Old Cairo.— Memphis.— The Nile.— Pyra- 
mids and Sphinx.— Backshish.— Leaving Cairo.— Meeting Friends.- Alexan- 
dria.— Catacombs.— Pompey's Pillar.— Alexandrian Library.— Light-house of 
Pharos.— Bound for the Holy Land.— Port Said.— Englishmen.— Experience in 
London. — Americans abroad. — Effects of our War.— Reaching Jaffa.— Orange 
Groves.— Russian Convent at Ramleh. — Muezzin's Call to Prayer.— The Sab- 
bath.— Going up to Jerusalem.— Mediterranean Hotel. 
Illtjsteations : The Pyramids, 364. — A Street in Cairo, 365. 

XXIX. 

THE HOLY CITY 375-388 

The Road to Calvary.— Pilate's House.— Via Dolorosa.— Chapel of the Flagella- 
tion.— Arch of Ecce Homo.— Houses of Dives and Lazarus.— Church of Holy 
Sepulchre.— Stone of Unction. — The Sepulchre.— Hill of Calvary.— Chapel of St. 
Helena.— Invention of the Cross Latin Chapel. — Vesper Service.— Father An- 
tonio.— Mount Zion. — Bishop Gobat.— Jews' Wailing Place. — Mosque of Omar. 
—Temple of Solomon. — Gate calledBeautiful.—Gethsemane.— Mount of Olives. 
—King David's Flight.— Bethlehem.— Bethany.— Valley of the Jordan.— At- 
tacked by Bedouins. — Sabbath in Jerusalem. 
Illtjstbationb : Via Dolorosa, 376.— Church of the Holy Sepulchre, 377.— The 
Beautiful Gate, 383.— Jerusalem and Gethsemane, 384. 



xvi CONTENTS. 

XXX. 

PAGE 

TO DAMASCUS AND CONSTANTINOPLE 389-^Ul 

Desolation of the Holy Land. — Leaving Jerasalem. — Robberies.— Kamleii.— Jaffa. 
— ^Mount Carmel. — Beyrout. — Messrs. Goodell and Bird.— Druses.— Army expect- 
ed from China. — Massacre of 1860. — Grandeur of Lebanon.— Leaving for Damas- 
cus.— Diligence. — French Road. — Valley of Coelo-Syria. — River Abana.— Damas- 
cus. — Street called Straight. — Rev. Mr. Crawford. — Abd-el-Kader. — Khans. — 
Mohammed. — Mount Hermon. — Sturza. — Cloud of Locusts. — Leaving Beyrout. — 
Cyprus.- Rhodes Patmos.— Smyrna.— Polycarp.—Mytilene. — Teuedos.— Dar- 
danelles.— Gallipoli.—Stamboul. 
Illustkationb : Beyrout, 392. — Damascus, 398.— Patmos, 400. 

XXXI. 

STAMBOUL TO NAPLES 402-417 

Storms at Constantinople; Snovp, Rain, Mud. — Political State of Turkey. — Prog- 
ress among the People. — Armenians. — Bibles. — Dr. Hamlin. — Robert College. 
—Leaving Stamboul.— Sea of Marmora. — Turkish Naval Officers.— Landing at 
Night. — The Pirseus. — Athens.- The Acropolis Mars Hill. — The Pnj'x. — Mar- 
athon. — Party murdered by Brigands. — Syra. — Cape Matapan. — Navarino. — 
Cephalonia.— Zante.— Gulf of Corfu.— Brindisi.— Banditti.— Entering Naples. — 
Beggars. — Bay of Naples ; Vesuvius, Sorrento, Pozzuoli, Baise, Cumte, Lake 
Avernus, River Styx, Elysian Fields. — Herculaneum and Pompeii. — National 
Museum. — Cemeteries of Naples. 
Illtjstkation : Frieze of the Parthenon, 40T. 

XXXII. 

ROME TO FLORENCE 418-436 

Old Route to Rome. — Terracina.— Roman Frontier Passports.- Illumination at 

Rome.— Present at two Councils. — Pius IX. and Herod.— Arch of Titus.— Sacred 
Vessels of the Jewish Temple.— The Pantheon. — Anecdote of Charles V. — Bar- 
berini.— Raphael's Skull. — The Tiber.— Overflow. — Catacombs : Origin ; St. Se- 
bastian and St. Agnese ; Bodies ; Inscriptions.— Sun shining on Rome.— Flor- 
ence. — View from San Miniato. — Ufflzi and Pitti Palaces. — Pisa, Leaning Tower, 
Galileo. — Chandelier. — Victor Emanuel. — Waldenses. — Religious Liberty. 
Illtjsteatious : Ground-plan of the Catacombs, 428.— Florence, from San Min- 
iato, 434. 

XXXIII. 

VENICE HOMEWARD 436-455 

Piercing the Apennines. — City of the Sea How to enjoy Venice. — Moonlight and 

Midnight.— Bell of San Marco.— Vienna.— Change in Government.— Mausoleum 
of Capucin Church. — Duke of Reichstadt.— Maximilian.— Prague.— "The Bo- 
hemian Fashion."— Tycho Brahe.—Huss.— Jerome. —Dresden Berlin. — Char- 

lottenberg.— Wittenberg. — Luther and Melaucthon.— Ninety-five Theses.— Pols- 
dam.— Frederick the Great.— Cologne. — Cathedral.— The Rhine. — Worms 

Weissenberg.— Strasbourg.— The Siege The War.— Nancy, Bar le Due, etc.— 

Paris. — London. — Isle of Wight. —England. — Scotland. — Ireland. — Atlantic 
Ocean.— Home again. 
Ili.ttsteation : Bingen on the Rhine, 448. 



AROUND THE WORLD. 



I. 

NEAV YOEK TO SALT LAKE. 



A jouKNET around the world is a very different under- 
taking to-day from what it was when Magellan set his prow 
toward the setting sun, and sailed onward — onward— until, 
with the rising sun, his ships returned to the harbor of Se- 
ville. It does not appear to have been well established, 
even among scientific men of that day, that the earth was 
round, and those who admitted the truth seem to have had a 
strong apprehension that it would not be safe for naviga- 
tors to venture too far over the other side ; they might not 
be able to make their way up again. The ships, too, in 
which these early voyagers ventured out into unknown seas 
were mere shallops compared with those which now trav- 
erse every ocean. The vessels in which Columbus first 
crossed the Atlantic are said to have been not more than a 
hundred tons burden — less than half the tonnage of the 
pleasure yachts whose safe passage over the same ocean 
within a few years has been accounted a great nautical ex- 
ploit. The ships of Magellan, which were the first to com- 
pass the globe, were two of 130 tons, two of 90, and one of 
60. "When, nearly half a century later. Sir Francis Drake 
left the shores of England to sail around the world, the five 
ships that composed his fleet numbered respectively 100, 
80, 50, 30, and 15 tons. To attempt to cross any ocean at 
the present day in such vessels, much more to brave all the 

B 



18 AROUND THE WORLD. 

perils of the Eastern Seas, would be accounted a piece of 
reckless hardihood. The heroism of those early navigators 
of unexplored seas is beyond all praise. 

For two centuries after it was first accomplished, the 
voyage around the world was not made within less than 
three years. This was the time consumed by the ships of 
Magellan. He, unfortunately, did not live to share in the 
final glory of the achievement due to his genius and hero- 
ism, having fallen in a conflict with the natives of the Phil- 
ippine Islands the second year out. Sir Francis Drake was 
three years in sailing round. Captain Cook was three 
years in making each of his voyages ; and the last, in which 
he also fell by the hands of savages, extended to four years. 
Now the circuit is a mere holiday excursion, and may be 
made in less than three months. 

It was to me a coincidence of some interest that the day 
(August 1, 1869) on which I had completed all my arrange- 
ments for the journey of which some account is given in 
the pages following was precisely three hundred and fifty 
years from that on which the first circumnavigator of the 
globe left the harbor of Seville. My plans for the journey had 
been definitely made several months before, and a complete 
programme of the entire tour j)repared, including every 
country that I expected to visit, and almost every day of 
the year. I was desirous to leave immediately on the open- 
ing of the Pacific Eailroad, but I delayed in order to reach 
the Japan and China Seas at a period of the year when 
they are free from the typhoons which sweep over them 
with destructive violence during the summer months, and 
also to reach India just at the beginning of winter, the 
only season in which a stranger can travel there with com- 
fort or safety. The appointed time having arrived, we left 
Xew York by the New Jersey Central Eailroad, and on the 
evening of the following day were in Chicago, where we 
sj)ent the night. I had telegraphed in advance for accom- 
modations in the Pullman Pacific cars, which at that time 
were running regularly no farther east than Chicago. On 



JSrUW YORK TO SALT LAKE. 19 

reaching the station of the ISTorthwestern Road the next 
morning, I was most agreeably surprised to find that Mr. 
Pnlhnan had set apart for the exclusive use of our party 
one of his finest palace cars — the " Promontory," then en- 
tirely new ; and that, to add still farther to the pleasure of 
the excursion, the secretary of the company, Mr. Charles W. 
Angell, in whom I recognized a former friend, had made 
his arrangements to accompany us as far as Omaha, five 
hundred miles on the way, to see us safely across the Mis- 
souri River and out on the broad prairie. These moving 
palaces have now become familiar to the traveling world, 
but at the time we entered the " Promontory" it was an 
event to find on wheels and to take with us a luxurious 
home — a parlor by day, and ample staterooms by night, in 
which we lived and slept with as much comfort as in a ho- 
tel. And I may here add that in no other part of the 
world did we find, either on land or on sea, such luxurious 
accommodations, or travel in so much ease. We would 
gladly have taken the same mode of conveyance all the 
way round. 

We crossed the Mississippi by the high bridge at Fulton, 
and entered what then appeared to be the granary of the 
West. The summer of 1869 had been so wet that from 
the time of leaving ISTew Jersey we did not see one fine 
field of Indian corn until we entered Iowa, and the wheat 
crop had also been severely affected ; but almost immedi- 
ately after we crossed the Mississippi the corn-fields of the 
West assumed their traditional grandeur, and the whole 
country had a new face. In the evening we had an 
illumination of our car, which was abundantly supplied 
with lamps, concealed in the day by mirrors. Two Har- 
vard students, bound westward on a hunting expedition 
upon the prairies, called, and spent the evening with us, 
and it passed away as rapidly as the train. Our first night 
on the palace car was one of quiet repose, and the morning 
brought us to Council Bluffs, on the Missouri, where we 
were ferried over to Omaha, the bridge at this point being 



20 AROUND THjE WORLD. 

then in course of erection. Here we bade farewell to onr 
escort, and struck out into the wide regions of the West, 
speeding onward and onward — one hundred miles after an- 
other — never ascending a perceptible elevation, and scarce- 
ly ever deviating from a straight line. 

At North Bend, on the Platte River, we spoke a train 
from San Francisco bound east. It was like meeting a 
ship in mid-ocean. There was no little excitement as we 
descried each other in the distance across the prairie ; and 
when we halted at the station I displayed the Stars and 
Stripes, which I carried not so much for protection as for 
dear remembrance in the many and far-distant lands that 
we were to visit. We had a few moments of hasty con- 
versation and inquiry for the news from either direction, 
and when the passengers by the other train learned that we 
also were bound for New York, but by way of tlie setting 
sun, they sent up three hearty cheers for the old flag and 
, for the party that was to bear it around the world. Amid 
our answering cheers the trains moved off, east and west, 
and were soon lost to each other in the distance. 

Late in the day, after dining at Grand Island, I went 
out on the engine to enjoy the excitement of scudding over 
the wide ocean of land. We were then beyond the sight 
of homes, and the stations on the road were few and far 
between. We overtook a troop of horses that were roam- 
ing wild over the prairie. As they saw the train approach- 
ing they selected the track for a race^course, and started for 
the Pacific Ocean at the top of their speed. But the iron 
horse was too much for them. Every now and then we 
overhauled the coursers, when the shrill whistle of the en- 
gine, instead of driving them from the track, only inspired 
them with new vigor, and imparted fresh speed. A stern 
chase is usually a long chase, but we ran them down, and 
they struck out into the prairie right and left. Then we 
came upon a flock of prairie birds, which seemed possessed 
with the idea that they could not escape from the lines of 
telegraph poles and wires on either side of the railroad 



NEW YORK TO SALT LAKE. 21 

track, and for a long time we kept tliem company ; but at 
length they also disappeared, and we had the com?se all to 
ourselves, and improved it welL The ride was exciting, 
without fear of danger on the level plain, and as we haul- 
ed up at the next station, the engineer took out his watch, 
and, turning to me, said, " One hour and five minutes." On 
my asking how many miles we had run between the two 
stations, he said " Forty." And yet, so- perfectly level, and 
straight, and smooth was the road, that I had sat upon the 
engine with as much ease as in the car. 

At Plum Creek, where we were detained half an hour 
by a heated axle, we found 150 United States soldiers sta- 
tioned to guard the road against the Indians. I called on 
the commanding ofiicer at his tent near by, and learned 
from him that a band of hostile Indians had crossed the 
track a few nights before, about four miles below. Of 
course I communicated the pleasing intelligence to the la- 
dies, whose chief terror in undei'taking the journey had 
been the wild Indians on the Pacific Pailroad. But, to re- 
assure them (as none of us had any extra hair that we wish- 
ed to lose), I got out my revolver, and, lest some one should 
be hurt, took the precaution not to load the dangerous weap- 
on, and no hostile savages made their appearance that night. 

The next morning broke upon- us nearly 500 miles west 
from Omaha. We were then ascending the Black Hills, 
the highest elevation on the Pacific Road, the station at 
Sherman being 8261 feet above the sea level. The coun- 
try was beginning to assume the air of desolation which 
marks the Great American Desert. On all sides were roll- 
ing hills, to which the antelopes that we scared up in great 
numbers bounded off with the fleetness of the wind, after 
pausing for a moment to examine the cars. They were 
frequently within rifle-shot. Whole counties of prairie-dog 
villages skirted the road, the curious little animals usually 
sitting bolt upright on their haunches, like statues, on the 
tops of their houses, or scampering away as we passed their 
towns. 



\ 



22 



AROUND THE WOULD. 




PRAIKIE DOG TILLAGE 



Cheyenne was at that time the most populous city on the 
line of the road west of Omaha, although it was less than 
two years old. On account of its relative importance, we 
had selected it as the most desirable place for stopping to 
spend the Sabbath. After breakfasting, I asked one of 
the oldest inhabitants, an intelligent-looking youth, what 
was the population of their city. He replied very serious- 
ly that about a year ago it was 12,000, but they had shot, 
and hung, and killed so many it now numbered only 4000. 
We congratulated ourselves that we had concluded to go 
farther on, and accordingly, about noon on Saturday, we 
left the train, and found comfortable quarters at the hotel 
at Laramie City. 

This place is situated on the table-land known as Lara- 
mie Plains — an immense plateau 7134: feet above the level 
of the sea, without a mountain or hill in sight, looking north 



NEW YORK TO SALT LAKE. 23 

or south, but with the Black Hills on the east, and the 
^ Rocky Mountains, with their perpetual snow, on the west. 
From our windows we looked across the vast plain direct- 
ly out into the deep ether, just as one looks across the ocean 
into the sky, the rotundity of the earth being as distinct in 
the one case as the other. The view of the Rocky Moun- 
tains, on the west, was grand beyond description. They 
seemed to come almost to our feet, although they were in 
reality some 60 miles distant, and in that perfectly clear 
atmosphere it was a calm delight just to sit and gaze upon 
the mighty chain with which the Almighty had bound to- 
gether this vast continent. I had heard it said on the way 
that it never rains on Laramie Plains, but we had not been 
there more than two hours before the rain commenced 
pouring in torrents, and it continued to come down as abun- 
dantly for at least an hour, giving us a supply of wholesome 
water, which can not be found for a thousand miles on the 
Pacific Railroad. 

The Sabbath passed pleasantly. In the morning we at- 
tended the service of the Rev. Mr. Cornell, an Episcopal 
missionary, and in the evening I addressed an assembly of 
residents and miners, who filled the largest public room in 
the town. At the close of the evening service, many whom 
we had met as perfect strangers gathered round us, and we 
were detained long by our mutual expressions of interest 
in finding that we had common sympathies and hopes, 
though belonging to many different branches of the Chris- 
tian family. The place, we were assured, was not what it 
was a year before. It had been thinned out by the process 
resorted to in the neighboring city of Cheyenne. We heard 
accounts of summary executions having taken place in the 
streets, but a more orderly or quiet town of two thousand 
inhabitants on a Sunday I have never seen in any part of 
the country. 

Taking the train again at noon on Monday, we crossed 
the Plains, and commenced the ascent of the Rocky Moun- 
tains, if ascent it could be called when we passed up and over 



24: AROUND THE WORLD. 

tliem so gradually that we did not know it. We had been 
in sight of the distant .peaks for two days while stopping 
at Laramie City; but there were no lofty ranges to crosSj 
and no mountains towering above us, until long after we 
began the descent on the other side. It was simply a scene 
of wild desolation — utter barrenness, as if the soil had been 
cursed that it should not bring forth. There was only an 
occasional bunch of wild sage, almost as dreary looking as 
the barren soil. One who has not seen this portion of the 
Pacific Railroad, and other portions of the Great American 
Desert for nearly a thousand miles in extent, can form no 
idea of the dreary waste that stretches on and on, until the 
eye longs to rest on something fresh and green, or even upon 
a rock ; for, contrary to all our ideas of the Eocky Moun- 
tains, not a rock was to be seen in this portion of the route. 
It was not until we entered the Echo Canon that the 
mountains assumed any grandeur; but here, and in the 
Weber Canon, a scene of wonderful magnificence opened 
upon us. On one hand (the left in passing westward) all 
is smooth — not a rock to be seen, although the mountains 
rise to a sublime height from the bed of the Weber River ; 
but the opposite side of the narrow defile is composed of 
towering rocks, assuming all forms of magnificent propor- 
tions, sometimes towering up in vast precipices toward the 
skies, and at others stretching out over the road, or assum- 
ing grotesque shapes. It was in the Echo Canon that Brig- 
ham Young threatened to destroy the army of General 
Sidney Johnston by rolling rocks down upon them as they 
marched through the narrow causeway, when the army 
was sent to look after the Mormons. The passage of the 
river and the railroad out of this weird region into the Salt 
Lake Yalley is called the Devil's Gate. The name was 
given on account of the fearful wildness of the scenery to 
which it leads, but it is equally appropriate as leading to 
the moral scene to which it introduces the traveler as he 
enters the Salt Lake yalle3^ Echo City is the border town 
of the Mormon Territory of Utah. 



THE MORMONS. 



25 




VIEW ON SALT LAKE. 



II. 

THE MORMONS. 

At Uintah Station, about a mile from the "Devil's 
Gate," we left the cars and took stage for Salt Lake City, 
thirty-five miles distant. The branch railroad was not 
then completed. The stage-road was rough and stony for 
a few miles, but the greatest inconvenience arose from the 
innumerable little streams which crossed it, as the means 
of irrigating the whole eastern portion of the valley. Many 
of these water-conrses are natural, but others have been 
made by divisions and subdivisions, in order to carry the 
water to parts which could not otherwise be irrigated. The 
streams are seldom bridged, and the gullies made in the 
loose soil were a great source of discomfort to the stage 
traveler, to whom they prove too decidedly anti-dyspeptic 
for a pleasure excursion. But the stages and horses were 



26 AROUND THE WORLD. 

good, and the ride, which was accomplished within about 
five hours, I would not- have lost, even at the cost of a more 
severe shaking than we received. It gave us a fine oppor- 
tunity for seeing the marvelous transformation of a desert 
into fruitful fields. Compared with what it was when the 
Mormons entered it twenty-one years before, the valley 
was more like a creation than the result of human skill 
and labor, and yet the change has been wrought almost ex- 
clusively by irrigation. The vast mountain barrier which 
stretches along the eastern portion of the valley is an im- 
mense fountain, streams of the purest water issuing from 
its sides at every point, and furnishing the means by which 
this once arid desert has been converted into one of the 
most fertile plains to be found on the face of the continent. 
When the Mormons entered this valley, it was like the des- 
olate mountains over which we had passed for hundreds of 
miles — a perfect waste of sand and wild sage, or devil's 
bush ; but, within a little more than twenty years from 
their first immigration, they had extended a line of farms 
along the eastern shore of the lake, sixty miles in extent — 
farms that equal in fertility the finest prairies in the East. 
We traversed thirty-five miles of these cultivated fields, 
and every mile only increased our admiration of the re- 
sults of this system of utilizing pure mountain water. The 
most beautiful crops of wheat formed the staple produc- 
tion — beautiful not alone because they were abundant, but 
because ripened and harvested, so far as they had been 
gathered, without a drop of rain, the straw and the ear so 
bright that they shone like silver in the sun. The fields of 
Indian corn and sorghum were standing up more luxuriant 
and taller than any we had seen east of the Mississippi, 
and equal to any we had seen in Iowa. The orchards on 
every farm were loaded with fruit, some of it ripening, but 
the most in about the same stage as at the East in the same 
latitude. The roadside, for the greater part of the way 
from Uintah to Salt Lake City, was a succession of apple, 
and plum, and peach orchards; the fruit, especially the 



THE MORMONS. 27 

apples, of large size, and the trees literally bending to the 
ground with their burdens. 

A.t Salt Lake City, Governor Durkee, in speaking of the 
wonderful fertility of the valley under Mormon tillage, 
said he could point out to me a lot of ten acres which had 
produced 900 bushels of wheat at a single crop ; and Mr. 
Hooper, the delegate to Congress from Utah, also stated to 
me that there were in the agricultural bureau of the Terri- 
tory records of the production of wheat at the rate of 93 
bushels to the acre. These, of course, were exceptional 
cases, and were the result of manuring as well as irrigation, 
and the most careful cultivation. By the same system of 
irrigation, Salt Lake City, which had not a tree or shrub 
when it was first settled by the Mormons, is now a park of 
locust and cottonwood-trees, the former raised entirely 
from the seed, and the latter transplanted from the caiiions 
in the mountains. Every street has its stream of water, 
and every garden in its turn is regularly watered under 
the direction of commissioners. This is certainly a won- 
derful change for a score of years. One can not but ad- 
mire the enterprise which has created a garden out of a 
vast desert, but the amount of labor expended in preparing 
the soil for cultivation has been small compared with the 
toil of the early pioneers at the East, who had dreary for- 
ests to clear away before they could go to work upon the 
soil itself. Here the settlers had only to turn the water 
upon the soil, and the work was almost done. 

This is the outside of Mormonism, and fair enough it is. 
The plague-spot, the corrupt system of imposture and delu- 
sion, is in the homes of the Salt Lake City and Valley. I 
went to Salt Lake City to learn upon the spot what Mor- 
monism is ; and having had the best opportunities for ac- 
quiring the information desired, I came away thoroughly 
convinced that it is a system of the grossest iniquity, and, 
on the part of the leaders, an arrant imposture upon a 
poor deluded people. There is much to admire in the ma- 
terial prosperity of the Territory, in the industry, order, and 



28 AROUND THE WORLD. 

public spirit of the people, and even in the administration 
of affairs by the Mormon leaders ; but one needs only to 
examine with a careful eye, and to reflect upon what he 
learns, in order to be convinced that the spirit and purposes 
of the whole thing are selfish and wicked. I have never 
met with any person, man or woman, who, having been at 
Salt Lake City, wishes to go there again. The feeling of 
disgust which comes over a stranger on entering the place 
increases every hour ; and when once the city is left be- 
hind, a sense of relief springs up as if a load were taken off 
the shoulders. The very atmosphere seems loaded with a 
moral pestilence, and an indescribable feeling of shame 
comes over the mind as we walk the streets and meet with 
men and women who are living lives which ought to be 
lives of shame to them. I did not call to pay my respects 
to Brigham Young simply because I had no respects to 
pay to such a man, in such a house as he keeps. Immedi- 
ately upon reaching Salt Lake City I received from a Mor- 
mon high in position a polite invitation to call upon " the 
President," which I as politely declined. I could learn 
nothing from him that I could not learn more satisfactorily 
and more reliably elsewhere, and I had no mawkish curios- 
ity to gratify. I became satisfied, from what I heard while 
there, that great injury has been done to the Mormons 
themselves, and that there has been much compromise of 
dignity, if not of principle, by visitors of all ranks, and 
among them Christians and Christian ministers, who have 
shown an eagerness to be presented to the arch-leader of 
Mormonism. The inference which the Mormon people 
draw is, that he must be a great and good man when the 
great and the good wish to pay him reverence ; and Brig- 
ham Young himself is puffed up by the attentions which 
are shown him by persons from the outer world. 

The Mormon, people generally are sincere, devout be- 
lievers in the system of religion which they have adopted, 
and in the men who rule over them. They are an igno- 
rant class, gathered from the lowest walks of life, and have 



TEE IfOBMON'S. 29 

no means of acquiring knowledge bnt through Mormon 
sources. The schools which they sustain do not afford the 
means of real education, although one or two of them have 
been greatly improved of late. The sale of books and of 
all sorts of literature, standard and periodical, at the book- 
stores in the city, is made almost exclusively to " Gentiles," 
and it would be very difficult to diffuse light among the 
Mormons. They have, almost without exception, implicit 
confidence in their spiritual rulers, who, they are taught to 
believe, are divinely commissioned to exercise authority 
over them, and whose integrity it would be a sin to call in 
question. The leaders, on the other hand, I believe to be 
as unscrupulous a set of men as can be found. There 
doubtless are some exceptions, but these exceptional cases 
are not among those who are admitted to the councils of 
the actual rulers of the community. The system of Mor- 
monism, as now administered, has three foundation stones 
— Love of Power, Avarice, and Lust : on these it rests, 
and it has no better basis, as facts patent to every intelli- 
gent visitor will show. 

The system, to begin with, was an arrant imposture, not 
having even the redeeming feature of fanaticism to excuse 
those who concocted it. It has been kept up by impostors, 
who pretend to have received divine revelations to carry 
out their plans. And what are their purposes % Here is 
a large community, gathered from all parts of the Avorld, 
living under an absolute despotism. The people have no 
share in the government, although living under the protec- 
tion of a republic. The form of voting is a mere sham, as 
the rulers know just how every man votes, and he must 
needs vote one way. The acts of the rulers, especially in 
their financial affairs, are sometimes submitted to the ap- 
proval of the people in public assembly, but in such a man- 
ner that they can form no judgment, and they are all vir- 
tually compelled to hold up their hands together. Every 
thing is under the control of a few men who pretend to a 
divine commission to rule the people. No ideas of repub- 



30 AROUND THE WORLD. 

lican freedom, of personal responsibility and rights, are 
permitted to enter the minds of the community ; and the 
whole police system is so perfect that it is next to impossi- 
ble for them to acquire such ideas. The leaders, too, are 
perfectly unscrupulous in the exercise of their power, I 
could give instances, which I have received on the best au- 
thority, in which they have not hesitated to instigate crime 
and to authorize acts which no man would dare to execute 
on his own responsibility, but in the performance of which 
the willing tools are found in an obedient people, who are 
taught that the voice of the tyrants is the voice of God. 
Can any one doubt that these men, the rulers, are keeping 
up this delusion for the sake of perpetuating their own 
power ? 

Again, we find a large, industrious, frugal community 
toiling on their farms, paying into the public treasury one 
tenth of all their productions, often called upon to con- 
tribute to public improvements, and, besides this, heavily 
mortgaged in person and property to pay off all the ex- 
penses of emigration and settlement. I have heard a great 
deal said about the benevolence of the Mormon authorities 
in bringing these poor people from distant parts of the 
world and settling them upon comfortable farms, but lib- 
erality is one of the last ideas that have been entertained 
in connection with the matter. Every cent is charged to 
the emigrant, and must be paid with enormous interest, so 
that it is, in reality, a grand money-making system. This 
is proved from the fact that the rulers of this people are 
rolling up large fortunes. A great portion of the people's 
money goes into the public treasury, but not one of the 
people knows what becomes of it after that. There are 
pretended financial reports, but no auditors. Brigham 
Young snaps his fingers in the face of his inferior ofiicers, 
and asks them if they have confidence in him ; and when 
they reply, as they must, that they have confidence, he tells 
them that is enough. Faith is all that is necessary. Brig- 
ham Young is immensely wealthy, and lives like a prince, 



THE MORMONS. 31 

and the rulers, as a general thing, are rapidly acquiring 
wealth. While these men ai^e preaching to the people self- 
denial and devotion to the public interest, and calling for 
their money without stint, no one can doubt that they them- 
selves are governed by the greed of gold. 

There is another foundation stone to the system. Al- 
most every man who is able to support more than one wife 
has more, but any person who visits the Territory, and 
learns what every one can learn, and yet imagines that re- 
ligion, or any thing but the basest passions of man's ani- 
mal nature had or has any thing to do with this part of the 
system, must be very credulous. For instance, I saw and 
conversed with one man, now more than seventy years of 
age, who formerly lived in a jSTew England town, and mar- 
ried, in his early life, a ISTew England woman. He joined 
the Mormons with his wife, and when she was getting 
somewhat in years he took another wife, of course a young 
one; and now that the second is getting older, he has just 
taken a young girl of eighteen. Can any one doubt his 
motives ? Brigham Young's wives are differently enumer- 
ated from thirty-five to forty. Heber Kimball had four- 
teen when he died a short time since. The pretense that a 
woman can not be saved, in the highest sense, without be- 
ing married, and other like impostures connected with this 
part of the system, only add a darker, fouler stain to the 
character of these men, who are living to fulfill the lusts of 
the fiesh. 

The condition of the women is deplorable. They have 
adopted the system of Mormonism as a religion ; they con- 
fide in their rulers, believing them to be honest, but they 
regard polygamy as a cross, and speak of it as such; a 
cross which they are bound to bear, while, with scarcely 
an exception, every woman would prefer to be an only 
wife. Many wear this cross in deep sorrow, such as the 
circumstances would naturally produce. From extensive 
inquiry of those who had every opportunity to be well in- 
formed, I became satisfied that the women of the Mormon 



32 AROUND THE WOULD.' 

commiinitj are far from being satisfied with their state, 
whatever representations to the contrary may have been 
made. I was told by a ' gentleman who had conversed 
with some of Brigham Young's daughters, who are com- 
paratively well educated, that they declared positively they 
would never marry a man who had another wife. 

The future of Mormonism — what is to come of it, and 
what is to come out of it — are questions of no little mo- 
ment to the American people. We have among us a com- 
munity aspiring to be a sovereign state ; until the opening 
of the Pacific Railroad, isolated by its position from the 
rest of our country, but now brought into direct communi- 
cation with all parts of the land ; a thriving people, con- 
stantly increasing by emigration fi'om other countries ; 
with social institutions not only opposed, but abhorrent to 
the great mass of the nation; the leaders, and the people 
with them, contemning the authority of the general gov- 
ernment, and resisting it when they dare ; and all this dis- 
loyalty sustained and intensified by fanaticism. What is 
to come of it ? 

After studying the subject upon the ground, my appre- 
hensions of any real difiiculty in dealing with the matter, 
either by moral means or by governmental authority, have 
subsided. Th^re are no signs of relenting or of voluntary 
submission on the part of the rulers, nor will there be while 
they can in security retain power and make money out of 
the people as they are now doing, and living in the unre- 
strained indulgence of their lusts. There are no signs of 
any extensive disaffection on the part of the people. They 
are an ignorant class, have little opportunity of becoming 
better informed; they have adopted the system from re- 
ligious motives, and have given themselves up to it with 
blind devotion. 

But there are elements at work which I have no doubt 
will, ere long, lead to an explosion, so that the whole thing 
shall go to pieces of itself, even without the employment 
of military or extra-judicial force. Were there no other 



THE MORMON'S. 33 

ground of discord, it is not to be expected that the people, 
who are now getting into communication with the rest of 
the world by means of the Pacific Eailroad, will long re- 
main blind to the character of the despotism that is exer- 
cised over them, or that they will continue to pour their 
money into the coffers of a few rapacious men who are 
rolling up wealth. Some of the more successful have al- 
ready declined paying their tithes, and have been cut off 
from the Church. There were pointed out to me at Salt 
Lake City the elegant residences of four brothers, together 
worth half a million of dollars or more, who came some 
time since to the point at which, in their opinion, compli- 
ance with the increasing demands of Brigham Young and 
his apostles ceased to be a virtue. One of them sent five 
hundred dollars in payment of tithes. Brigham sent it 
back, saying it was not enough. Tlie man coolly put the 
money into his pocket, telling the avaricious rulers that he 
would henceforward do his own tithing and administer 
his own charities. They are all now independent of the 
Church. Some men must acquire intelligence; this will 
extend, and it is not in the nature of man, especially in this 
age of the w^orld, to submit to such absolute tyranny as is 
exercised by the Mormon rulers. 

Then, again, these rulers, governed alike by selfish mo- 
tives, are likely to fall out among themselves. There is 
already more or less jealousy of Brigham's power and in- 
creasing wealth, and the world will ere long have another 
illustration of the adage, " When rogues fall out, honest 
men will get their dues." At the time of m}^ visit at Salt 
Lake a cloud w-as rising which threatened no good to 
Brigham Young and his fellows. Two of Joe Smith's sons 
had appeared on the stage, and were preaching a reforma- 
tion to crowded houses. Where a corrupt hierarchy de- 
pend on divine revelations for their authority, it is easy to 
get up counter-revelations. The legend which these young 
Smiths had just brought to Salt Lake was that, previous to 
his death, Joe Smith, the original prophet and leader of the 

C 



34 ABOUND THE WOULD. 

Mormons, had predicted the birth of a son by a favorite 
wife, who should be his successor in the Church. This he 
had by revelation. Five months after the death of Joseph 
the son was born, was named David, and now, at the age 
of twenty-three, he comes, with his brother Alexander, to 
claim the headship of the Church and the leadership of 
the people. He denounces polygamy, as opposed to the 
principles and revelations of his father, inculcates loyalty 
to the government of the United States, and does not hesi- 
tate to reflect upon the despotism and avarice of the pres- 
ent rulers. He could not stay in Salt Lake City a day bnt 
for the protection of the United States authorities and 
arms, especially the latter (nor, indeed, would any Gentile's 
life be worth insuring for a single night were it not for 
the big guns of the United States troops on the hill over- 
looking Salt Lake City) ; but he was fearlessly holding 
forth to crowded assemblies on the abuses of Mormonism, 
and the apostles and elders were replying to his statements 
and strictures. There are so many indications of dissen- 
sion in the Mormon community that I feel confident it will 
go to pieces by its own rottenness, and I trust that its disso- 
lution is not very far distant. 

I do not attempt any description of Salt Lake City ; of 
its remarkable growth in the desert from nothing to a well- 
built town of twenty or twenty-five thousand inhabitants ; 
of the Tabernacle (which is complete), and of its great or- 
gan, one of the largest in the world, which has been years 
in building ; of the Temple, the foundations of which only 
were laid. These were not what I went to see so much as 
Mormonism itself. I studied it to my satisfaction, and 
hailed the morning on which I took my leave of the place, 
even though the daylight had not dawned when I took my 
seat in the stage. When it came light I noticed among 
our fellow-passengers a lady and gentleman whom I had 
seen alight from the stage only the evening before. I aft- 
erward learned that they had come with the expectation of 
spending a week, but the lady was so disgusted with all she 



CALIFORNIA. 35 

saw and heard that she entreated her husband to take her 
away at once, and before daylight they . were outward 
bound. 

Soon after daylight, when we were a few miles out of 
Salt Lake City, we picked up two passengers who were on 
foot. I was seated on the top of the coach, and, as one of 
them took a seat below me, something heavy in his coat- 
flap fell upon my toes. I thought I recognized a revolver, 
and said to him, " I perceive that you are prepared to take 
care of yourself." He turned, and looked me in the face 
in order to scan my motive in speaking to him, and then 
gave me his history. He had been in business in Salt Lake 
City, and, becoming obnoxious to the Mormons, learned 
that his life was in danger, and fearing assassination, had 
left in the night, prepared to sell his life dear if attacked. 
At a safe distance from the City of the Saints he mounted 
the coach, with the intention of looking out for a part of 
the country more conducive to longevity than he had rea- 
son to fear Salt Lake City or Yalley would prove. 



III. 

CALIFOENIA. 

After this episode at Salt Lake City we resumed our 
journey by the Pacific Railroad at Uintah, and soon reach- 
ed the western half of the great thoroughfare, the Central 
Pacific ; not the half in distance, but much more than half 
in the boldness of the undertaking and in the grandeur of 
achievement. Leading over the abrupt heights of the Sier- 
ra Nevada Mountains (which might, with great propriety, 
exchange names with the Rocky Mountains, for rocky ele- 
vations and precipices abound far more in the foi^mer than 
in the latter), the work to be accomplished on the Central 
Pacific was far moi'e forbidding than any thing upon the 



36 



AROUND THE WORLD. 



Union Pacific. By tlie force of a mighty engine, and oc- 
casionally with a double team of iron horses, we climbed 
the dizzy heights, and wormed our way along the sides of 
the mountains. At different points we could look from 
the car window down the precipitous rocks into the ravine, 
more than fiften hundred feet below. Cape Horn, a bold 
promontory, around which the road makes a sharp curve at 
this elevation, is as famous among Pacific Railroad travel- 
ers, and almost as much of a terror, as the cape from which 
it takes its name is to navigators. The twenty-five miles 
of close snow-sheds through which we passed (since in- 
creased, I believe, to thirty or forty), were a more curious 




ON TUE 8IEEEA NEVADA8. 



CALIFORNIA. 37 

than pleasing portion of the passage. We could only now 
and then, through the interstices of the sheds, catch a 
glimpse of the wild and grand scenery which marks this 
part of the road. Before we commenced the ascent of the 
Sierra Nevadas the thermometer which I carried with me 
stood at 89 degrees in the Salt Lake Valley. When we 
reached the summit, early the next morning, the same ther- 
mometer indicated 34 degrees. We were then at an ele- 
vation of 7000 feet, and it was August 14th. When we 
reached the California plain in the afternoon of the same 
day the mercury was again at 88. 

My views of the importance of the Pacific Railroad to 
the country and to the world have been greatly enlarged, 
not only by passing over it, but still more by observing in 
foreign countries, and even in the very heart of Asia, the 
influence which it is already exerting upon the intercourse 
and the ideas of the world at large. There was no enter- 
prise connected with our country that awakened such inter- 
est in the East as this. All over India it was the theme of 
earnest inquiry; and, when I had crossed the Sewalic range 
of the Himalaya Mountains, and reached the beautiful and 
fertile valley of Dehra Doon, I was earnestly entreated by 
the English and American residents to deliver a public 
lecture on the Pacific Railroad, of which they had heard 
much, and wished to hear still more. On my return south 
from the Himalayas I met at Allahabad the report of the 
commission appointed by the East India government to 
visit this country and examine our railroads, and especially 
the Pacific Road. Their report was quite as enthusiastic 
and laudatory as one emanating from the companies them- 
selves could be. In my opinion, the value of the road as 
an immediate channel of commerce has been overestima- 
ted. No railroad — not all the railroads in the world can 
carry on the commerce of the world. They are limited in 
capacity, and a great passenger route can never become a 
great channel for the transportation of freight. This is 
especially true of a single track road, and more especially 



38 AROUND THE WORLD. 

true of a road of such immense length as the Pacific, on 
which passenger trains are liable to be detained, and must 
have the precedence over freight. It will be as impossible 
to carry on the commerce of the world over one or more 
railroad tracks as to carry on the entire correspondence of 
the world over a single telegraph wire. The passenger 
business of the Pacific Eoad must nearly, if not altogether, 
absorb its capacity of locomotion ; but its vast importance, 
even in a commercial point of view, will be enhanced rath- 
er than diminished by this result. It is to be the great me- 
dium of communication between the different parts of the 
world ; and while actual commerce — the transportation of 
the products of the earth, and of the skill of different na- 
tions — must have a channel of greater capacity, the com- 
mercial intercourse of the world will receive from the com- 
pletion of this and similar works a stimulus which has nev- 
er been fully estimated, and the value of the road to its 
enterprising proprietors, as well as to the world at large, 
will be increased instead of being diminished by this very 
restriction. 

The grand enterprise of the century is to be the ship 
canal across the Isthmus of Darien. Commerce must have 
water for its channel ; it must have a channel of such ca- 
pacity that there will be no occasion for breaking up car- 
goes; and the nearest approach to a natural union of the 
two oceans will be a canal of sufficient depth and breadth 
to allow the largest ordinary steamers and sailing vessels 
to pass through without transshipment of goods. It has 
been a matter of surprise that our government and our 
capitalists have not taken hold of this great scheme with 
more determination to have it carried through to comple- 
tion. I know many of the difficulties which lie in the 
way, international and economical, but it is an enterprise 
of such vast importance to the country and to the world 
that it ought to be begun at once, and completed as soon 
as it can be done, if a practical route can be found. 

It was late Saturday evening when we reached San Fran- 



CALIFORNIA. 39 

CISCO. More than two weeks before I had written to the 
proprietor of the Lick House engaging rooms for 10 o'clock 
of that evening, and I note it as one of the many indica- 
tions of precision in modern travel that, although I was 
nearly a fortnight on the way from ISTew York to the Pa- 
cific, including different pauses of a day or two at a time, 
I was never an hour behind time on the Pacific Eailroad, 
and I reached the hotel at San Francisco within an hour 
of the time I had named some weeks before. The entire 
journey around the world was marked by nearly the same 
exactness, of which I may have occasion to speak from 
time to time. 

A week passed in the city of the Golden Gate, and I 
found myself still in a maze. I did not lose my conscious- 
ness during the long journey from the Atlantic to the Pa- 
cific. It was all a reality when, after spending two or 
three days in traversing the older states, we crossed the 
Missouri and swept out upon the broad prairies of IsTe- 
braska, and over the Black Hills, and then over the Rocky 
Mountains, and through the Great Salt Lake Basin, and 
over the Sierra ISTevadas. All this was real. Neither the 
time nor the way seemed long, although it was not difiicult 
to comprehend that we were actually spanning the conti- 
nent. 

Seven days and seven nights of steady travel upon a 
smooth road, behind a locomotive, will tell upon any dis- 
tance ; and when, early on the morning of the seventh day 
of actual journeying, we crossed the summit of the Sierra 
Nevada Mountains, we strained our eyes to catch a glimpse 
of the broad Pacific, althougb it lay a long day's journey 
out of sight. As we descended the magnificent slope we 
felt sure that we were coming into the Golden State, and 
when we saw the wheat-fields, and vineyards, and the abun- 
dance of luscious fruits at the railway stations greeted our 
eyes and then our palates, we became more and more 
pleasantly assured that we were within the borders of Cal- 
ifornia, the cornucopia of the country. 



^.Q AROUND THE WORLD. 

Darkness had gathered over ns before we crossed the 
bay and entered San Francisco, so that we could form little 
conception of the city. But when, the next morning, on 
going out into the streets on our way to church, instead of 
a mushroom city of twenty years, made up of rough boards 
and canvas, like the new cities through which we had 
passed along the line of the Pacific Koad, we found our- 
selves in an old established town, with broad streets and 
magnificent stone buildings, as substantial and imposing in 
appearance as those of cities which have been built for 
centuries, I could not make it real that this was San Fran- 
cisco, a city not yet twenty-one years of age. It was more 
hke one of the creations of Aladdin's Lamp. The oldest 
inhabitants were those that came in 1849, and it was not a 
little curious to find in so large a city so many who came 
anno ttrhis conditce. To the inquiry, " How long have you 
been in California ?" the answer seemed almost invariably 
" Twenty years ; I came in 1849." These old settlers have 
a sort of pre-emption right, of which they are not a little 
proud, as well they may be. 

San Francisco is something to be proud of, but of one 
thing I should never boast, and that is of its chmate. Dur- 
ing the month of August we had not one day of genial or 
even moderately comfortable weather. Cold fogs in the 
morning, and cold winds during nearly all of the twenty- 
four hours, made up our experience. With the winds from 
the ocean, which sweep over the sand-hills, come storms of 
sand and dust that are excessively annoying, and from 
which there is no escape. The weather at that season of 
the year is so cold that ladies wear their furs, and gentle- 
men go clad or armed with heavy overcoats. Winter is 
said to be the real summer of San Francisco, and I would 
fain believe it is so; yet Californians speak in terms of 
admiration of the very weather that penetrated our bones. 
But the old proverb, de gustibus etc., I presume, is as ap- 
plicable to the gusts of San Francisco as to any others, 
A few miles from the coast the weather is mild and de- 



\ 



CALIFORNIA. 4X 

lightful ; farther inland it becomes intensely hot, and again 
upon the high lands it becomes delightfully cool. 

Of the sights and scenes in and around San Francisco I 
mention but one. Between the city and the ocean there, is 
a neck of land, a high promontory of sand six or seven 
miles wide. The great drive of the town is across this 
promontory to the shore, where the waves come rolling in 
to rest after their long journey from Japan and China. 
About three hundred yards from the land two rugged rocks 
rise abruptly out of the water to the height of seventy-five 
feet, covering an area of perhaps an acre each. These 
rocks are the property and the habitations of an immense 
colony of sea-lions, as they are called, or seals, who hold un- 
disturbed possession, and who are protected in their right 
of property and from all injury by statute law. Some of 
these sea-lions are of enormous size ; and it is an amusing 
sight, which never loses its interest, to watch them in their 
clumsy efforts to climb to the very pinnacles of the rocks 
by means of their fins and tails. They often come in con- 
flict struggling for the high places, and then we are sure to 
hear the loud disputation, unlike any controversy which I 
have ever heard before, their fierce growls and barks being 
heard above the noise of old Ocean, whose waves are con- 
stantly breaking on the shore. There are seals of all sizes, 
from the tiny cubs to the strong old settlers, who look as if 
they might have been masters of the rock for a hundred 
years. I doubt if there is another such scene to be witness- 
ed any where npon the earth or sea ; and the great curiosi- 
ty is, that these undomesticated denizens of two elements 
are living in a community of their own, almost within 
stone's throw of a frequented shore, in as wild a state as 
when the continent was discovered, constantly within the 
sound of human voices, and yet as apparently unconscious 
of the vicinity of man as if they were a thousand miles 
from land. 

California is a great state. I have been informed of that 
fact repeatedly, and by those who have lived in it long 



42 ABOUND THE WORLD. 

enough to know whereof they affirm ; but it is, in truth, a 
great state. In territory it is equal to all New England, 
N'ew York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and a part 
of Delaware. It is not only large enough, north and south, 
to constitute several climes, but it has a remarkable variety 
of climate within a narrow compass. If variety is the spice 
of life, Cahfornia is the spiciest country to live in that I 
have found in all my wanderings. I have never before 
been where chills and fever were so prevalent. I do not 
mean the terrible disease bearing that name, of which I 
have a greater dread than of the yellow fever, but the al- 
ternate shakings and warmings which one gets in passing 
fi'om one part of the state to another. The morning that 
I came into it (August 15th, at 5 o'clock) the thermometer, 
as I have already stated, stood in the car window on the 
Pacific Railroad at 34°, only two degrees above freezing. 
At 2 o'clock the same day, farther west, the same thermom- 
eter stood at SS. This, it is true, was on different planes ; 
but one may "shiver and shake" day after day at San 
Francisco, and an hour's sail will take him into the bland- 
est atmosphere. In going up to Stockton, we left San 
Francisco August 23d, at 3 o'clock P.M., wrapped up in 
our warmest winter cloaks and overcoats, and stopping at 
Benicia, only thirty miles distant and on the same plane, 
we cast off our wraps and stepped into the most delightful 
summer weather, and saw the sun go down in a sea of gold 
— a sensation and a sight which we had not enjoyed since 
our arrival. During the same journey the weather would 
be intensely warm during the day, and, in the same locali- 
ty, by midnight we would find ourselves searching, half 
awake, for all the stray clothes within reach, and in the 
morning the thermometer would indicate frost. The same 
diversity and variations of temperature prevail in almost 
every portion of the state, and in some places that I have 
visited I have been informed that the thermometer rises 
frequently as high as 110, and even 120 in the shade. 
One of the wonders of this great state is that every 



CALIFORNIA. 43 

thing does not die out utterly in the summer, and leave the 
valleys ever after as barren as the granite rocks of the walls 
of the Yosemite. Not a drop of rain falls in the summer 
in the great valleys which are the agricultural regions of 
the state. In passing through these valleys in the month 
of August, they do not give the slightest signs of vegeta- 
tion, excepting the trees, which are sparse. The ground is 
apparently as dry as an ash-heap fresh from the burning. 
You may travel all day long and never see a blade of 
grass, nor even a green weed ; but, as soon as the fall rains 
commence, the hills and valleys are clothed with the rich- 
est verdure, another year's crop of grass and grain comes 
on, and the once arid slopes and plains are burdened with 
the harvest. Vegetation must have some strange power of 
lying dormant and then springing into life, or there must 
be latent moisture in the soil which preserves it from per- 
ishing, for, while the surface of the earth is without the 
least evidence of vegetable life, the fruit and ornamental 
trees, whose roots strike deeper into the soil, are as luxuri- 
ant in their growth and in their foliage as if rain had fall- 
en every day in the year. It is no uncommon thing to see 
a vineyard or plantation of fruit-trees in full and green 
leaf, and loaded with the richest fruit, standing in the midst 
of a perfectly arid tract of country, and this, too, without 
irrigation. My partial examination of California has satis- 
fied me that agriculture in all its branches is to be the great 
interest of the state, and, indeed, it is so now. 

The fruits of California have not equaled my expecta- 
tions. It is true, the rage for mammoth productions, mam- 
moth vegetables and fruits, of which we heard so much in 
the early settlement of the state, has given place to a more 
sensible attention to quality ; but, even with this improve- 
ment, the fruits generally are not equal in flavor to those 
of the Eastern States. They grow in a profusion that is 
without any parallel within the range of my observation, 
and with so little cultivation that they seem almost to be 
spontaneous ; they have a smoothness and perfection of 



44 AROUND THE WOULD. 

form which gives thein the beauty of flowers ; I have seen 
trees loaded with fruits of the largest size on which an im- 
l^erfect specimen could scarcely be found, and yet, when 
they come to be eaten, they do not fulfill their bright prom- 
ise. The first, and, as it was said, the finest of the peaches 
had disappeared before we arrived ; but those which we 
have eaten, although magnificent in appearance and i-ich in 
color, have been without the flavor that the peaches at the 
East preserve throughout the season. It is, perhaps, too 
early to form a judgment of the apples ; but I have tried 
many varieties, and, while they are fair to look upon — ex- 
ceeding in size and smoothness all the productions of the 
Eastern States, so that, to judge merely from their external 
appearance, one might suppose that this friut, as well as 
many others, had taken a new lease of life for the Pacific 
coast, and had entered upon an entirely new career — I have 
not tasted a good apple in California. This fruit, even 
more than others, is without flavor and without juice. Such 
quinces as I have seen growing in various parts of the state, 
among the mountains as well as in the valleys and on the 
plains, I never even imagined before. They grow to an 
enormous size, and are as smooth as an orange — quite dif- 
ferent, taking a whole tree together, from any thing with 
which I have been familiar, and there can be little fear 
that this fruit is not sufficiently highly flavored. 

But the glory of California fruit is its pears and grapes. 
The former grow with a luxuriance and rapidity, and with 
such abundance of large and luscious-looking fruit bending 
the trees to the earth, that, on entering any of the fruit- 
orchards, a stranger is compelled to break out continually 
in astonishment. All varieties of pears, if not actually in- 
digenous to the soil, have found in California their true 
home, and many of them, at least, are as delicious as they 
are finely developed. Some specimens of this fruit, in 
years past, have been a wonder at the East ; but there are 
a few more left. Pears have become so abundant — even 
the choicest varieties — that they have actually become a 



CALIFORNIA. 4.5 

drug in the market; and Eartletts whicli will weigh a 
pound, and which blusli when you simply look at them, 
will scarcely pay for sending them to market. I was at a 
ranch not an hour's distance from San Francisco, contain- 
ing all kinds of fruit and pears of every variety, hundreds 
of bushels of such fruit as was never seen in any other 
country, the owner of which said he should leave it all to 
rot upon the trees, as it would not pay for the picking. 

Grapes grow every where in the state with the greatest 
luxuriance, and spontaneously. They require no sort of 
training ; they are trimmed annually almost to the level of 
the soil, leaving a small stump, and, before the season is 
over, SDch a burden of the finest of fruit is seen, and in 
clusters like the grapes of Eshcol, as can now scarcely be 
found any where else on earth. The choicest of foreign 
grapes, w^hich at the East are matured only in graperies by 
artificial heat, here revel in the open air. I believe all vis- 
itors in California, if not the citizens, unite in pronouncing 
the grapes the finest of its fruit, and they grow in such pro- 
fusion that all classes may have them at this season as an 
article of daily diet. Figs and pomegranates grow with 
the same luxuriance ; the former, as in Oriental countries, 
producing three crops in a season. The fig-tree grows with 
astonishing rapidity. 1 have seen, even among the moun- 
tains, and still more in the broad valleys, fig-trees twenty or 
twenty-five feet in height, that could not be more than ten 
or twelve years old, and covered with the second crop of the 
largest and finest figs. It is surprising to see so little ac- 
count made of this fruit, which, in other countries, is an im- 
portant article of food, and which is more nourishing than 
any of our native fruits. But the taste for it must be ac- 
quired, and it is evident that it has not been extensively ac- 
quired in California. 



46 



AROUND THE WORLD. 




VIEW OF TUB YOBEMITE. 



THE YOSEMITE VALLEY AND THE BIG TREES. 

I WAS surprised, on reaching the Pacific coast, to learn 
how few Cahfornians have ever been to the Yosemite Val- 
ley. On making inquiry of one and another of the old 
residents, who would be most likely to give me informa- 
tion in regard to the most desirable route to the valley, I 



THE YOSEMITE VALLEY AND THE BIG TREES. 47 

could scarcely find one who had been there. It was not 
because " a prophet is not without honor save in his own 
country," for the Californians generally have a very high 
appreciation of the attractions of the wonderful cleft, as 
indeed they have of every thing included within the wide- 
stretching borders of their magnificent state. Scarcely five 
thousand persons have visited the Yalley since it was first 
discovered and brought to notice, and of these a large pro- 
portion, if not the largest, have been persons from other 
states and countries. There are several reasons for this 
practical indifference, on the part of the neighbors, to this 
wonder of the world. One is, that the Californians are a 
practical people ; and though they do not seem to have a 
very strong attachment to their gold, they are very fond of 
making it, whether in the mines, or on Montgomery and 
California Streets of San Francisco. The trip also re- 
quires time — a longer time than I had supposed — and time 
is money in California as well as elsewhere. But the 
chief reason I presume is, that the Californians know more 
of the difficulties of the journey than strangers who come, 
often with this as the main attraction, and who, having 
come so far, will not be deterred by the terrors of the way. 
It is, in truth, about the most severe expedition that I have 
ever accomplished, and, at this dry season of the year, be- 
yond all comparison the dirtiest. Dust does not express 
the idea, although for days, in going and returning, you 
are enveloped in clouds, the dirt covering and penetrating 
every thing that you have on, entering your eyes and ears, 
and all the avenues to your throat, and so begriming ev- 
ery thing that, when one gets back into the region of baths 
and clean clothes, he will be sure to cast behind him all 
that he has had on, and never look back to see what be- 
comes of it, only too thankful that it is his no longer. We 
met some travelers just returned from the Valley, who, like 
the spies on the way out of the Promised Land, attempted 
to dissuade us from going in, but we concluded that "what 
has been done can be done," and determined to see it for 



48 AROUND THE WORLD. 

ourselves. And, in very truth, no other excursion that I 
have ever made, in any other part of the world, has been 
so remunerative in interest. Nowhere else have I seen so 
much of grandeur and beauty in natural scenery combined. 

Two weeks are required for a satisfactory visit, includ- 
ing the journey to and from the Valley. It may be ac- 
complished in ten days, but the excursion will be hurried 
and more fatiguing. There are three routes from^'Stock- 
ton, one by Bear Valley and Mariposa, another by^entre- 
ville, and a third by Big Oak Flat. The last has become 
the easiest route by the extension of the stage - road, and 
we chose it on going into the Valley for the saving of time 
and fatigue. Leaving San Francisco in the afternoon by 
boat, we reached Stockton — 117 miles — in the course of 
the night. We were roused early the next morning to take 
the stage at six o'clock. The road, on the first daj^, was 
smooth and perfectly level the greater part of the way, but 
fearfully dusty. No rain had fallen, not a drop for many 
months, as is the case every summer ; but all day long our 
route lay through a succession of wheat-fields, covering 
what is called the Valley of the San Joaquin (pronounced 
San Waukeen), which is an extended plain, once regard- 
ed as waste land, but in reality one of the most fertile 
wheat regions in the world. The grain had been put in 
sacks and stacked on the ground, where it was threshed, 
and where it is suffered to lie for weeks without fear of 
injury from the weather. 

The first day's staging brought us to Garrote at 10 o'clock 
in the evening, weary enough to lie down and rest until 
noon of the next day, but at 3 o'clock in the morning we 
were roused to resume our journey by stage. The name 
of the place was not at all pleasantly suggestive, and al- 
though we did not meet with the fate of some of the early 
settlers, from which the name was derived, we were most 
unpleasantly reminded in the morning of a comparison of 
Dickens, that being called up before daylight to go off in a 
stage is very much like being called up to be hanged. But 



THE YOSEMITE VALLEY AND THE BIG TREES. 49 

we were in for the war, and, stiff and still weary, we again 
took our seats and rode through the woods to Hardin's 
Ranch, which we reached at 10 o'clock in the day. Here 
we were to take horses, and, after a hasty lunch, were in 
the saddle. Two of our horses were donkeys, of no mag- 
nificent proportions, which fell to the lot of those of our 
party who were not least in stature, and altogether we 
formed a cavalcade that the Knight of La Mancha might 
have been proud to lead. Our guide, who, with the care 
of horses, and saddles, and riders, had no mean responsibil- 
ity, was William Bourne, a name somewhat ominous. Be- 
fore committing ourselves to his direction, however, I dis- 
tinctly inquired if he were that hourne of which I had 
read "from which no traveler returns." He assured me 
he was not ; that scores of travelers had fallen into his 
hands, and had come out safe and sound ; and I desire to 
add my testimony to his faithfulness, and my belief that 
there is not a more trusty guide in all the Valley. 

The ride of that day and evening — for we were ten 
hours in the saddle — was one which made its impress upon 
our memories in more ways than one. All unused as we 
were to the exercise, we carried with us for many days 
the most tender recollections of its severity, but we shall 
carry with us while we live the most pleasing recollections 
of its romantic and sublime interest. Hour after hour we 
wound our way through the magnificent forest, its grand 
old trees growing upon us as we passed along, from those 
of ordinary proportions to sugar-pines of ten and twelve 
feet in diameter, and then to the Big Trees, of which I 
shall speak hereafter. 

About 3 o'clock we reached the hospitable mansion of 
Mrs. Gobin, at Crane's Flat, which I desire to commend to 
the special regard of all travelers toward the Yosemite. 
Mrs. G. is a native of the Emerald Isle, but she is proud 
to speak of New York as " her adopted city," and New 
York may well be proud to count her among its numerous 
adopted daughters. She occupies a little shanty on the 

D 



50 ABOUND THE WORLD. 

flat, and while her liege lord looks after his sheep on the 
surrounding mountains and green flats, she entertains trav- 
elers to and from the Valley in a truly magnificent style. 
Nowhere after leaving San Francisco did we find such 
fare, such delicious bread and butter, coffee and rich cream, 
canned fruits of all kinds, mutton, ham, etc. She made 
many apologies for being taken unawares, and not having 
a dinner in readiness for us ; when we rode up she was just 
in the midst of the blanc mange which she was preparing 
for Mr. Colfax's party, who were then in the Valley, and 
who were to pass her ranch the next day ; she would have 
a good dinner ready for us on our return from the Valley, 
etc., etc., which promise she fulfilled to our perfect satisfac- 
tion a few days after. But we were in special need of a 
good lunch just at that time, and on my assuring her that 
1 would make it all right with Mr. Colfax, whom I expect- 
ed to meet in the evening, she spread for us, there in the 
wilderness, on rough boards, a repast the memory of which 
will long linger in our thoughts, and which was all the 
more grateful, in our hunger and fatigue, because it was so 
unexpected. Mrs. Gobin deserves this tribute for her ge- 
nial manners and her generous fare. Her native modesty 
is such a striking trait in her character that I have no 
doubt her ruddy face will assume a deeper blush should 
she chance to see her name in print; but she is one of 
those public benefactors that can by no means escape a 
measure of immortality, and 1 take pleasure m handing 
her down to the notice of coming generations. 

Before descending, let us take a bird's-eye view of the 
Valley. It is a cleft in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, vary- 
ing from half a mile to a mile in width, six miles in length, 
with two branches at the head of the Valley running one 
or two miles farther in opposite directions, the walls on 
both sides and throughout its whole extent being nearly 
perpendicular, and from three to six thousand feet in height. 
The brow of El Capitan, the guardian promontory, actually 
projects over the Valley, which lies three thousand feet be- 



THE YOSEMITE VALLEY AND THE £10 TREES. 5J^ 

low. Tlie Eiver Merced, a large stream of the purest wa- 
ter, flows through it, connecting it in a waj with the outer 
world, although the course of the stream as it enters or 
lea\;es the Valley affords no ingress or egress for the trav- 
eler. It enters by two successive perpendicular falls of 
six hundred and four hundred feet, and leaves the Valley 
by such a rugged channel, between such lofty walls, that 
no foot can follow it. The Valley throughout its whole 
extent is a plain, with only sufficient descent for the flow 
of the river, the bottom having an elevation of four thou- 
sand feet above the level of the sea, and its sides from half 
a mile to more than a mile additional height. Whether it 
was formed when the world was made, or by some great 
throe of nature long afterward ; whether the Valley itself 
was made by the sinking of the bottom several thousand 
feet, or by the slow action of ordinary causes ; whether it 
was once the bed of a glacier or of a seething caldron, 
geologists will probably discuss as long as geology remains 
such an uncertain science. But the solution of such ques- 
tions is not at all material to the appreciation of the won- 
ders and beauties of this remarkable place ; and I prefer, 
as most travelers will, to take the Valle}- just as it is now, 
rather than as it might have been in remote ages of the 
past ; nor shall I attempt to solve the j^roblems connected 
with this wonderful phenomenon. 

There are only two practicable routes into or out of the 
Valley. They are both near the lower extremity and on 
opposite sides, and lead by narrow, zigzag pathways down 
the precipitous sides. There are numerous places in the 
descent where the turning of a saddle, or the misstep of a 
horse, or the sliding of the horse's foot on the rock might 
hurl the rider a thousand feet upon the rocks. Knowing 
some of the difficulties, not to say dangers, of the passage, 
I had all day added my exertions to those of the guide in 
urging the party onward, that we might have daylight for 
descending, but it was near sunset when we reached the 
brow of the mountain. 



52 AROUND THE WORLD. 

Our guide, having adjusted and secured every saddle, 
took the lead, the ladies taking position next, and in solemn 
silence we followed, single file. I would not, for all the 
gold in California, have made the descent an hour later on 
a moonless night, although it has been done in the dark. 
As it was, the sun had actually set before we had taken 
one hasty look up and down the Valley and commenced 
the passage. Committing ourselves, step by step, to the 
care of the great Guide, who has said, " He shall give his 
angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways ; they 
shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot 
against a stone," we rode on, the curtains of night gather- 
ing closer and closer about us, until before we reached the 
plain the last rays of daylight had vanished, and we could 
only look up to the night-lamps of heaven for the glimmer 
that guided ns. But the skies were perfectly clear, and 
the hosts of heaven came out in unwonted numbers to 
watch us as we slowly wound our way down the mountain. 

The descent occupied considerably more than an hour, 
and on reaching the foot we were still five miles from the 
hotel, which was higher up the Valley. After a few mo- 
ments' rest and a refreshing draught from a brook, w^e re- 
sumed our ride. Four miles on we forded the Merced, 
where, getting some idea of the locality of the hotel from 
the guide, and leaving the rest to follow on under his care 
at a walking gait, I gave the reins to my horse, and, trust- 
mg altogether to his knowledge of the trail, dashed off at 
full gallop through the wood. About half a mile from 
Hutchings's, as I came out upon a clearing, an immense 
bonfire almost blinded me. A large company was assem- 
bled at Leidig's to give a sort of barbacue to Mr. Colfax, 
who, with a large party, including Lieutenant Governor 
Bross, of Illinois, and Mr. Bowles, of the Sjpringfield Re- 
publican, was at Hutchings's. Reining in my horse merely 
to ask for the trail, I dashed again into the thicket, and 
after another half mile dismounted at the celebrated but 
not very splendid house of Mr. J. M. Hutchings, the genius 



THE YOSEMITE VALLEY AND THE BIG TREES. 



53 



of the Valley, who first brought it into public notice. Never 
was a place of rest more welcome to weary travelers than 
was this rude hotel. 

Awakened early in the morning by the noise of depart- 
ing guests, and by the conversation of those who remained, 
which, as the house is a mere shell, could be heard by all 
in common, we came out to take our first look by daylight 
at the Valley, its gigantic walls and lofty waterfalls. Di- 
rectly in front of the hotel the Yosemite Fall meets the eye, 



















YOSEMITE FALL. 



the water dropping gently over the brow of the opposite 
cliff 1500 feet, then striking the rock, and flowing on in a 
cascade 620 feet farther, when it makes a final leap of 400 
feet, and is gathered up in the basin below. In the course 
of the morning we walked to the foot of the fall, half a mile 



54 AROUND THE WORLD. 

distant, and sat and listened to the story of the stream which 
had fallen from the dizzy height, and drank of the pure wa- 
ter as it flowed quietly away toward the Merced. The vol- 
ume of water at this season of the year is not large, but no 
accumulation could add to the gracefulness of this highest 
of the falls. The height is so great that the stream is some- 
times turned aside from the perpendicular by the wind sway- 
ing it to and fro like a sheet of gauze, and occasionally it is 
almost lost in mist in making the long descent in air. 

From the hotel, or its immediate vicinity, may be seen 
several other points of interest. Almost overhanging it is 
Sentinel Kock, 3043 feet high, on which a flag is still flying 
that w^as long ago fastened there by some adventurous 
youth. On the opposite side of the Valley, and about a 
mile farther up, is the North Dome, a perfectly bald moun- 
tain of gray granite, the side presented to the Valley glis- 
tening in the sunlight as if it had been polished b}' hand. 
This is 3568 feet above the Valley. A much finer view of 
it may be had from the trail leading to the Vernal Falls, 
fi'om which point the dome is as perfect as that of St. Pe- 
ter's at Rome. Directly across one of the branches of the 
Valley is another rock of much greater height, being 4737 
feet above the Valley, the Half Dome, having the appear- 
ance of being cleft from another half, but without any cor- 
responding portion to complement it. These mountains of 
rock, which have been hewn into their present state with 
consummate skill, are composed of the adamantine granite, 
which has left but few marks of the passage of time in any 
thing like debris at their base. The small amount of de- 
bris at the foot of the cliffs, in some cases its entire absence, 
is one of the most remarkable characteristics of these rocky 
walls. I noticed one spot where the rock was 3000 feet in 
perpendicular height, and the greensward came square up 
to its base. 

After the ride of yesterday we were content to spend the 
greater part of the day in the quiet study of what could be 
seen from our quarters, but at 4 o'clock we mounted our 



THE YOSEMITE VALLEY AND THE BIG TREES. 



55 



liorses for a ride down the Yalley to El Capitan and the 
Fall of the Bridal Veil, about five miles distant. The af t- 




,: .,;iuv 




FALTj OF THE BUIBAL VEIL. 



ernoon was beautiful ; the golden light of the descending- 
sun was streaming up the Yalley, gilding the mountain sides 
and rocky peaks, and when Ave readied the fall lighting it 
up as for a bridal. This is the most delicate of all the 
falls, the line of water in its clear descent being woven by 
the wind into thin lace. After fastening our horses we took 
our seats upon the rocks, and sat, and gazed, and talked of 
its wondrous beauty until our guide reminded us that night 
was coming on. A little higher up the Valley are the Ca- 



56 



AROUND THE WORLD. 




CATUEDKAL K0CK8. 



thedral Rocks, the most varied group of the Valley, while 
just opposite stands the guardian, El Capitan, one mighty 
mass or shaft, rising up from the river's edge 3300 feet, un- 
til its brow appears to lean over its base. 

Another morning found us early in the saddle, and on 
our way to Mirror Lake, which lies ever slumbering be- 
tween the North and Half Dome. The reflection from its 
surface is not only perfect, but absolutely surprising. In 
Watkins's photographic gallery at San Francisco (a collec- 
tion, by the way, which every one who goes to the Valley 
should see) are several views of this remarkable lake, and 
no one could distinguish in the photographs the reflection 
from the mountains themselves by any difference in the 
distinctness of the pictures, and tlie views above and below 



THE YOSEMITE VALLEF AND THE BIG TREES. 



57 



are equally extensive. The famed upright reflection, pre- 
senting the trees on one side of the mountain in their nat- 
nral position, I satisfied myself, was a mere delusion caused 
by the shape of the trees, and not any remarkable phenom- 
enon. 

The grand feature in our visit to the lake was the sun- 
rise above, or rather below, the brow of the Half Dome, 
4700 feet down in the depths of the water. We watched 
for it half an hour or more ; at length the edge of the cliff, 
reflected almost directly beneath our feet, was touched with 
gold — in a moment more the brilliant edge of the sun fell 
below the cliff, and all the glory of a sunrise in the moun- 
tains, inverted and beneath the waters of an apparently 
fathomless lake, burst upon us. The sun sailed down into 







JIIEBOK LAKB. 



58 



AROUND THE WORLD. 



the deep ether, instead of rising as it was wont. The effect 
was so singular and striking that I fear my description will 
give no idea of it as it appeared to our wondering eyes. 

The sun now being fairly up, or rather down in the lake, 
we remounted, and galloped over the rough trail and u}) 
the other branch of the Yalley to the Yernal and the Ne- 
vada Falls. These are both upon the same stream, which 
is one of the main branches of the Merced, and a stream of 
large volume. Access to the falls is not without difficulty, 
nor altogether without danger, owing to the rudeness of 
the pathway which lies along the rocky chasm. One lady 
in our company, though not of our own party, actually gave 
out and was left behind, while we pressed forward. We 
were a thousandfold repaid for all our toil, and forgot all 




VERNAL FALL. 



THE YO SEMITE VALLEY AND THE BIG TREES. 59 

danger as we stood in the spray, first of the Yernal Fall, 
400 feet in height, and without a break. The rainbow 
which covered it like a promise was as perfect and brilliant 
as the sun itself ; in some directions of the wind, blowing 
the spray toward the spectator, it becomes a circular bow, 
and sometimes a double circle. Ascending the dizzy height 
by the ladders which were placed against the wall, and 
which were by no means an inviting pathway, we found a 
rocky parapet directly over the fall, and the sight from 
above was equal to that from below, although the reverse 
of it. The river seemed a mass of falling crystals instead 
of a stream of water. 

Following the stream half a mile farther up, along a 
succession of cascades and race-courses not unlike the rap- 
ids at Niagara, although more picturesque, we took our 
seats on the rocks near the foot of the Nevada Fall, by 
many considered the most striking, if not the most beauti- 
ful of all the falls. It is 600 feet in height. We could 
have spent the day at this spot watching the stream as it 
fell in vast masses over the brow of the cataract, occasion- 
ally holding back as if to gather courage for the terrific 
plunge, and then with accumulated force falling into the 
deep basin at its foot. There was a constant vibration, a 
pulsation of one or two seconds' interval in the falling mass, 
which was now less, and now greater. 

Near the upper or Nevada Fall rises the loftiest peak 
about the Yalley, called the Cap of Liberty, from its close 
resemblance in shape to this ancient emblem of our nation- 
ality, and also known as Mt. Broderick. It is a lofty rock 
of granite rising 4600 feet above the Yalley, smooth as a 
helmet, and yet quite accessible. The view from its sum- 
mit of the whole region which it overtops is said to be mag- 
nificent, and I should have made the expedition but for the 
want of another day to devote to it. The ascent can be 
made wdth ease in a day, in connection with a visit to the 
Yernal and Nevada Falls, by taking an early start in the 
morning, and omitting for the day the visit to Mirror Lake, 



60 AROUND THE WORLD. 

but 110 one who has not strong powers of endurance should 
undertake it. 

After dmner, the last day of my visit, mine host proposed 
to me to go out and persuade some of the beautiful deni- 
zens of the Merced, wliom I had seen disporting themselves 
in its crystal waters, to join ns at breakfast the next morn- 
ing. I had been from boyhood on intimate terms with their 
speckled cousins east of the Rocky Mountains, and, nothing 
loth, accepted the invitation. In a little more than an hour 
we returned with a string of trout, many of them half a 
pound each, which together weighed precisely ten pounds. 
Deponent did his full share in hooking them, but Emanuel, 
a Mexican muleteer boy, who had gone with us to carry our 
fish, and who had provided himself with a line and a rude 
pole, was the hero of the hour. Hearing a violent struggle 
going on a short distance from us, and running to see what 
the fight might be, I found he had just landed a trout that 
weiglied at the hotel two pounds and five ounces. The 
trout of the Western slope are very similar to our own, with 
the exception of the gold and vermilion spots, which are 
entirely wanting. How they have lost them, or whether 
they ever had any, I am not informed. 

In the course of the evening, when my hook and line 
went by the board, I gave myself up to the admiration of 
the heavens, the glory of which, in the perfect clearness of 
the atmosphere, was indescribable. There was no moon, 
but the stars seemed multiplied, if not magnified, tenfold, 
and shone with a splendor which I have never see-n equaled 
elsewhere. Looking up into the bright heavens from out 
the deep valley, whose walls on both sides were more than 
half a mile in perpendicular height, was like looking at 
them through a telescope, and there was a strange fascina- 
tion in the scene. Kecalling the impressions which the 
long vision made upon my mind, I can scarcely tell which 
transfixed me most with admiration, the perfect, positive 
purity of the air, or the intense brilliancy of the myriad 
lamps of the skies. 



THE YOSEMITE VALLEY AND THE BIG TREES. Q\ 

The Yosemite Yalley, being a part of the public lands of 
the United States, was ceded to the State of California by 
act of Congress in 1864, " upon the express condition that 
the premises shall be held for public use, resort, and rec- 
reation, and shall be inalienable for all time." It is in the 
hands of commissioners appointed by the state, but nothing 
is done to make it more accessible, or to make the routes 
to the various parts of the Valley more practicable and less 
dangerous. There are some private claimants to lands in 
the Valley which ought in some way to be disposed of, and 
then a liberal annual appropriation should be made by the 
State of California, or by the United States, for the improve- 
ment of the trails to and through and around the Valley. 
It is a shame that this wonder in the world's scenery, hav- 
ing such a proprietor as the Golden State, should be suf- 
fered to lie in such a condition, when a few thousand dol- 
lars a year would make it comparatively easy of access, and 
greatly facilitate the approach to its various objects of in- 
terest and of wonder. 

I have been often asked since visiting the Valley whether 
it equaled my expectations, and my answer is that of every 
one whom I have met who has made the pilgrimage : it is 
far grander and more wonderful than any thing I had con- 
ceived. Pictures and photographs give the outlines, but 
convey no idea of the lofty sublimity of those walls of 
granite which inclose you on every side, and which reacli 
far up into the blue ether by day and toward the stars by 
night. So complete is the isolation, and so perfect this in- 
closure, that many persons on getting into the Valley are 
seized with a kind of apprehension that they shall never be 
able to get out, as if they had been let down from the clouds 
into some deep chasm far remote from human abodes. 

Bright and beautiful was the morning that we were to 
take our leave of the Valley of Wonders, as, indeed, was 
every morning. Only once during the days and nights of 
our sojourn had we seen a cloud against the sky, and this 
was in keeping with the rest of the scene. It was while 



Q2 AROUND THE WOJiLD. 

we were seated at the foot of the Nevada Falls, looking up 
at its summit, that a bank of cloud, whiter than the driven 
snow, rolled over the brow of the mountain and hung there 
for a long time, as if it belonged to the mountain instead 
of the air. 

We rose early to leave the Yalley. The trout were 
waiting for us at the breakfast table, and, these dispatch- 
ed, our train of prancing steeds (diminutive mustangs and 
donkey's) were brought up to the door. The process of ar- 
ranging and rearranging the saddles over, no momentar}" 
prelude to the journey, we mounted, and presently were 
galloping single file down the Valley. In the morning 
sunlight we passed the Cathedral Rocks and El Capitan, 
stretching our eyes once more to reach their tops and com- 
prehend the dizzy height. We paused once again before 
the Bridal Yeil to see it woven afresh into fleecy lace, and 
then wafted into thin mist, and then dissipated into thin 
air. We reached, at length, the foot of the mountain, 
and prepared for the ascent. It appeared by no means as 
perilous as when, in the gathering darkness, we had slowly 
wound our way down its precipitous sides. Slowly we 
wound our way up again, often pausing to suffer our faith- 
ful and patient animals to gather breath, and at length 
reaching the top and taking our stand together upon the 
bald summit which looks into and far up the Valley, the 
perils and the chief fatigue of the excursion over, we join- 
ed in singing, to the tune of Old Hundred, 

" Praise God from whom all blessings flow." 

The sound of our voices died away long before it readied 
the deep valley above which we were standing, but it 
went up, we trust, into the ear of Him who shaped this 
wonderful Valley, and set these mountains fast by tlie 
word of his power. 

Inspiration Point, which is on the Mariposa route, just 
before making the descent into the Valley, affords the 
finest comprehensive view of tlie whole scene to be liad 



THE YO SEMITE VALLEY AND THE BIG TREES. g3 

from any point. This route should be taken either in go- 
ing into or in leaving the Yalley, not merely on account of 
the commanding view which the point affords, but to vary 
the route, and to afford an opportunity for visiting the sev- 
eral groves of the gigantic trees of the Sierra Nevada 
range, among the greatest wonders of California, which 
all lie in the vicinity of tlie Yosemite Valley. 

The first strong desire to visit the California coast that 1 
ever felt was excited by reading the accounts of the Big 
Trees, as they are usually called, the great marvel of the 
vegetable world, and the longing to behold them with my 
own eyes never subsided until, tape in hand, I took their 
proportions. I am satisfied, but disappointed. They are 
just as large as they have been represented, the same num- 
ber of feet in diameter and in circumference. I made my 
measurement with an accurate line, and found every thing 
right, but, on comparing my anticipations with what I saw, 
I find that I was expecting to see each tree covering about 
an acre of ground with the area of its trunk, to say nothing 
of its top extending slightly above the clouds. The truth 
is, no one at first sight can appreciate, or even comprehend 
the greatness of these giants of the forest, and this for sev- 
eral reasons. Our conceptions of magnitudes, or heights 
and distances, are seldom accurate. Yery few persons 
ever found the Falls of Niagara one half as high as they 
expected. These trees, too, are so symmetrical in shape, so 
perfectly well-proportioned, and so like other trees in their 
general aspect, that it is difficult to take into one's mind 
the simple element of greatness by itself. But I imagine 
that the main reason why they do not at first impress the 
beholder with their immensity is, that they stand in the 
midst of giants. To visit the groves where they are found, 
the traveler passes through a regular gradation, from a 
treeless plain and small oaks, to firs and pines which swell 
out into larger dimensions, until trees of ordinary size be- 
come the exceptions, and great trees the general rule. For 
miles before reaching the giants themselves 1 saw scores 



(54 ABOUND THE WORLD. 

and then hundreds, and then, 1 may say, thousands of sug- 
ar-pines that would measure thirty or forty feet in circum- 
ference ; trees of this; size shooting up 150 feet in a shaft 
as straight as an arrow, and with scarcely any perceptible 
diminution in size, and then branching out and rising 100 
feet higher. One man, who had long occupied a ranch in 
the vicinity, told me he had measured sugar-pines that 
were fifteen feet in diameter, or forty-five feet in circum- 
ference. After traveling through such a forest for half a 
day, one is really not in the best state to judge of big trees, 
and when he comes upon those that are a little larger, he 
may be excused if he can not open his eyes much wider, 
and exclaim Oh! 

These wonders of the forest were discovered in 1852 by 
a hunter, whose story met with no credence until others 
had penetrated the same wilds and had seen for themselves. 
They have now a name and celebrity throughout the wide 
world ; and although they are not indigenous in any other 
country, or any part of this country excepting the small 
tract in which they were first found, they are now growing 
in almost every land, propagated from seeds taken in the 
cone from California. The tree grows rapidly and vigor- 
ously in almost any climate, and although few will live to 
see the result of their experiments in the production of 
trees of equal size with the parent stems, yet its character 
may be studied now in almost every country. The generic 
name of the tree — Sequoia — perpetuates the memory of 
George Guess, the ingenious Cherokee half-breed who in- 
vented an alphabet that was for a long time in use among 
that nation. His Indian name — Sequoyah — was given to 
the newly-discovered Redwood of California by the learn- 
ed botanist Endlicher, who first defined the genus, calling 
the tree Sequoia Semjpervirens. The leaf of the Redwood 
is flat, like that of the Arbor Vitm. 

When the great trees were discovered, the classification 
became the subject of much discussion in different coun- 
tries, and different names were given ; but it has at length 



THE YOSEMITE VALLEY AND THE BIG TREES. 55 

been established that thej are of the same genus, and an- 
other honor is attached to the memory o£the Cherokee ge- 
nius whose name is now associated with the grandest pro- 
duction of the vegetable kingdom. It is called Sequoia 
Gtgantea. It is very similar in form and in the general 
appearance of the trunk to the Redwood. One not famil- 
iar with both would scarcely distinguish them as they stand 
in the forest; but the leaf of the Gigantea is branching, 
like the cedar of the Eastern States, although much longer 
and stronger, and not flat, like the Sem/pervirens and the 
Arbor Vitce. The Redwood, which is the common tree of 
the Pacific slope, furnishing a large portion of its timber, 
also attains to gigantic size, trees having been found, ac- 
cording to authentic reports, of little less circumference 
than the Big Trees themselves. Professor "Whitney, in his 
scientific report of the state, speaks of Redwood trees hav- 
ing been found all the way from twenty to thirty feet in 
diameter, and great numbers are now standing in the for- 
est of fifteen or twenty feet in diameter. The wood of the 
two species is the same — dark red, much darker than any 
cedar that I have seen, and almost as light as cork. From 
one of the prostrate monarchs, quite removed from the rest, 
and giving evidence of having been among the largest of 
its tribe, I took a sliver and had it made into a fiagstaff. 
It is as dark in color as old mahogany. 

There are several groves of the Sequoia Gigantea, but 
they are all in the vicinity or the direction of the Yosemite 
Yalley, the principal trails to the Yalley leading through 
the groves. The Mariposa Grove, although not the first 
discovered, is perhaps the most celebrated, and will afford 
the most satisfaction to those who have not time to visit all. 
This is the grove which was ceded, in connection with the 
Yosemite Yalley, by act of Congress, to the State of Cali- 
fornia for preservation. It is situated about fifteen miles 
south of the Yalley, is 5500 feet above the level of the sea, 
and has 125 trees which are more than forty feet in circum- 
ference. They run down to this diminutive size from imie- 

E 



QQ . ABOUND THE WOELB. 

ty-two, ninety-one, eighty-seven, eightj'-two feet. One tree 
in this grove, now partially burned at the base, was origin- 
ally more than 100 feet in circumference. Since I was in 
the Valley I have received an account of a tree more re- 
cently discovered that measures forty feet four inches in 
diameter, or 121 feet in circumference. It is melancholy 
to see how many of the larger trees have been felled by the 
fire, and in a great measure consumed. Before seeing 
them I imagined their destruction to have been the result 
of mere vandalism, but a ride through the forest afforded 
a more satisfactory explanation of the disasters which had 
befallen the giants. Every dense forest that is visited by 
man, either civilized or savage, is liable to the ravages of 
fire, and this is peculiarly the case in this part of the coun- 
try, where no rains fall during several months of the year. 
The embers of a camp-fire or the wad of a hunter's gun 
may kindle a fire which will spread over a wide tract, and 
burn for weeks or months. On our return from the Valley 
we passed through one of these conflagrations for more 
than a mile, at times almost suffocated by the smoke, and 
not without apprehension that the immense pines which 
were blazing at their base, and for fifty feet up the trunk, 
might chance to fall very inconveniently at the moment of 
our passing. The Sequoia is peculiarly exposed to the rav- 
ages of fire. The bark of the large trees is some eighteen 
inches thick, is as fibrous in its texture as a bale of cotton, 
and, being perfectly dry, invites the raging element to a 
contest of sti^ength. Some of the trees have conquered, 
coming out of the contest with diminished proportions, but 
others, and these apparently the proudest monarchs of the 
grove, have bowed their lofty heads and measured their 
length upon the soil. It is to be hoped that those which 
have been placed under the protection of the State of Cali- 
fornia will be guarded against the approach of fire, as well 
as against all mutilation from any other cause. 

The Calaveras Grove, situated in another county, w^as the 
one first discovered. It is composed of about 100 trees of 



THE YOSEMITE VALLEY AND THE BIG TEEES. Q^ 

large size, one of which, twenty-seven feet in diameter, was 
felled several years since by boring at its base, and the 
stump, smoothed off about six feet from the ground, has 
been made the scene of festivities in which a large compa- 
ny has taken part. It was then sheltered by the erection 
of a building over it. A friend has given me a statement 
of the amount of house-room which is afforded upon the 
surface of the stump of one of the trees. A circle of thirty 
feet diameter contains Y07 square feet. If this could be 
had in squares, it would give for a single floor a parlor six- 
teen feet by twelve ; a dining-room fifteen feet by ten ; a 
kitchen twelve feet by ten ; two bedrooms, each ten feet 
by ten ; a pantry eight feet by four ; and a closet four feet 
by two. Quite a roomy house for a small family might 
thus be constructed on a single stump. This will give a 
good idea of the magnitude of the trees ; or, if any one 
wishes to know what space the tree would cover on the 
ground, let him strike a circle with a radius of fifteen feet, 
and he will have it before him. The tree in the Calaveras 
group which was felled was carefully examined some dis- 
tance from the ground to ascertain its age, and 1255 con- 
centric circles, indicating as many years, were counted. 
There was, of course, a gradual increase in the thickness of 
the circles. The first hundred measured only three inches, 
the second hundred nearly four inches, the tenth hundred 
nearly eight inches, and the twelfth hundred thirteen inch- 
es, showing gi'eat rapidity of growth, and the comparative 
youth of the trees considering their size. Another tree, of 
seventy-six feet circumference, was carefully sawed, and 
the rings counted to the number of 1935. Whether others 
will yet be found of still more gigantic size is doubtful, as 
the forests have already been extensively explored ; but it 
is not at all impossible. The height of these trees is not so 
great as has sometimes been represented, but 300 or 325 
feet, which some of them attain, is no mean height. There 
are taller trees in Australia, where the Eucalyptus has been 
known to reach the height of 480 feet; but, taking them 



58 AROUND THE WORLD. 

all in all, there are no vegetable wonders elsewhere that 
equal tlie Big Trees of California. 

On the return to San Francisco we stopped for half an 
hour at Keith's gardens, near Garrote, an extensive planta- 
tion of fruit on the edge of the mountain, and in the very 
midst of a region which, being dug over and over for gold, 
is now the picture of desolation. The fruits raised in the 
mountain region — peaches, grapes, pears, etc, — are consid- 
ered finer than those produced in the low country. I vis- 
ited also the extensive fruit-ranch of Dr. Strentzel, at Mar- 
tinez, directly opposite Benicia, which is considered one of 
the finest in the state. He has nearly a hundred acres of 
the choicest trees and vines, which were loaded with the 
fairest and finest fruits — pears and apples, peaches and 
plums, figs and pomegranates, etc. — such as no other clime 
can excel. It was the finest exhibition of fi^uit that I have 
ever seen. Dr. S. has exhibited in its cultivation a discrim- 
ination and taste which was too much neglected in the ear- 
ly days of the state. 

While waiting on the wharf at Benicia for a steamer, my 
attention was attracted to a placard painted on a board and 
placed on a high post, as if containing important directions 
for travelers. The same is posted all over the state, and 
the following story respecting it was related to me by a 
Californian. Out among the mountains, a miner, traveling 
alone, came to a fork in the road, and, doubtful which 
course to take, saw, to his great delight, what he took to be 
a guide-board. It was too dark for him to read it from 
the ground, and with great difiiculty and many slides he 
at length succeeded in reaching the tojD. Holding on with 
one hand, he struck a match with the other, and by the dim 
light read the following important announcement : " Fifty- 
five miles to Sacramento, eighty miles to Stockton, and 175 
miles to the wholesale and retail store of H. H. &, Co., 

Street, San Francisco." They evidently understand 

the art of advertising in California. 



ON THi: PACIFIC. 



69 



V". 

ON THE PACIFIC. 

On the 4tli of September we took our traps on board the 
Japan, one of the large, splendid ships of the Pacific Mail 
Steam-ship Company which ply between San Francisco and 
Japan and China. We were booked for a long voyage, not 
being allowed to see land for twenty-two days, the allotted 
time which, by the rules of the Company, the captain is re- 
quired to fill out before reaching the port of Yokohama. 
Should he, by the aid of favoring gales, or by any miscal- 
culation in regard to the amount of coal consumed, reach 
the coast of Japan before the time, he must sail up and 
down the coast until the twenty-two days have expired, 
and may then run into the Gulf of Yeddo and land his 
passengers. He may be longer in making the voyage, but 
he must by no means accomplish it in less time, although 
it could easily be made, without crowding the ship, in, 
eighteen days. ! 

The Japan is one of the finest ships of the fleet to which 
she belongs. She measures 4351 tons, is 370 feet in length, 
79 in breadth ; her depth of hold is 31-| feet, and, as we 
are sailing, she is 20 feet out of the water. Her cylinder 
is 105 inches in diameter, and her smoke-pipe 36 feet in 
circumference — not a very small chimney, reminding us of 
the big trees in California. She is registered to carr}^ 1450 
passengers, of which number we had only about 500, near- 
ly all of these Chinamen returning to their former homes. 
The ship carries thirteen large life - boats all ready for 
launching, each one capable of floating some fifty persons 
or more, but it adds very little to my sense of security to 
see this array of life-boats. In those sudden emergencies 
which constitute one of the chief dangers of the sea, it is 



fJQ AROUND THE WORLD. 

seldom that they are successfully launched, or prove of any 
essential service to the mass of the passengers. 

The crew were all Chinese, as well as the servants in the 
cabin and the waiters at the table, but they were admirably 
trained, were perfectly quiet, and ready at every call and 
for every emergency. The fire alarm was sounded soon 
after leaving port, merely to accustom the men to the warn- 
ing, the passengers having been duly notified, and every 
man was at his post. Another day the life-raft, a large In- 
dia-rubber float, was got out, put in perfect order, and made 
ready for a launch. The Chinese sailors are born and 
brought up on the water, many of the families of populous 
cities living in boats, so that they may be considered a sort 
of amphibious animal, and they would probably be as 
strange on land as a fish out of water. 

We found in Captain Freeman a gentlemanly, polite offi- 
cer, not only looking well to his ship — the first duty of a 
seaman — but attending as well to the comfort and pleasure 
of his passengers, which can not be said of all captains on 
the sea. 1 had but one complaint to make of the regula- 
tions of the ship, which in the main were admirable and 
rigidly carried out, and this complaint lies more against 
the Company than the master of the ship, although in a 
subsequent voyage, in another vessel of the same line, I 
found that the rule of which I complain could be and was 
relaxed by the captain voluntarily asking me to perform a 
service in which no clergyman on board the Japan was al- 
lowed to officiate. 

We passed through the Golden Gate on Saturday, the 
4:th, and, getting out to sea, I met on board Bishop Kings- 
ley, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, who was on his 
way to visit the missions and conferences of that Church 
in Asia and Europe, and who died suddenly at Beyrout the 
following spring. I consulted with several of the passen- 
gers, and finding them all desirous to have religious serv- 
ices on the following day, and obtaining Bishop Kingsley's 
consent to officiate, provided it were allowed by the officers 



ON THE PACIFIC. 71 

of the ship, I went to Captain Freeman, not supposing for 
a moment that it would be forbidden. But I was inform- 
ed that it was a rule of the Company that the Episcopal 
service only should be read at the usual hour of public wor- 
ship, eleven o'clock on Sunday. He stated that if we 
would conform to the Episcopal Church by reading the 
service we could do so, otherwise it would be read by the 
surgeon of the ship, and that would be the only religious 
exercise of the morning. As we were neither competent 
nor inclined to comply with this condition, we all attended 
and heard the service, or a part of it, read by a young man 
who seemed to feel, as he was in reality, out of his place, 
and who curtailed the whole service to less than twenty 
minutes. As clergymen, we were quite willing to be led in 
our devotions and to be instructed by any competent per- 
son, and so were the passengers generally, while we could 
not but regard it as an indignity to all on board that, when 
ministers of the Gospel were present, and the passengers, 
one and all, desired to enjoy their ministrations, they should 
be deprived of the privilege, and delivered over into the 
hands of a surgeon — a youth who made no pretensions to 
religious character — as the only proper person to minister 
to them in holy things. 

We were very differently treated on the voyage from 
Yokohama to Shanghai, the captain alluding to the rule, 
but very sensibly remarking that he thought it more desir- 
able to have religious service properly conducted by a cler- 
gyman than to have it administered in the manner men- 
tioned above. I hope, ere this, the Company has modified 
its standing order. 

So far as the sea itself and its sights were concerned, 
we had a tame voyage. We did not have even the variety 
of first "seeing a ship and then shipping a sea," which one 
may have at any time on the Atlantic. We saw one ship. 
On the seventh day out, just at dusk, a sail was descried on 
the horizon, ten or twelve miles distant, quite out of our 
course, and standing toward the northeast. " The usual dis- 



72 



AROUND THE WORLD. 



cussion ensued as to what she was, where from and where 
bound, but we are*all profoundly ignorant to this day on 
this important point. One ship that we expected to see we 
did not see. On leaving San Francisco we were informed 
that we should meet the homeward-bound steamer in mid- 
ocean and exchange mails, and accordingly we waited day 
after day, with our packages of letters ready. On this 
hangs a tale which I shall presently relate. 

One evening word came to the saloon that the lights of 
the coming steamer were in sight, and we were all on deck 
m time to see a beautiful little star sink below the horizon. 
When we had given up the steamer we watched for whales, 
and some of these sea-monsters made their appearance near 
th.e ship ; and then we took to watching the flying-fish as 
they came out of their native element on short excursions 
in the upper air. With their silver bodies and transparent 




PLVIKG FISH. 



wings, they are as beautiful as a bird, and their flight is by 
no means ungraceful. Some of them flew from one to two 
hundred feet before going below to moisten their wings. 
The sea-birds never left us, even when more than a thou- 
sand miles from any land, and I could not help feeling a 



ON THE PACIFIC. 



73 



deep sympathy for them, living so far away from the rest 
of the world. But if they prefer such a life, I have noth- 
ing to say against it. I know they did not ask for any 
sympathy, or seem to need it. 

One evening we had a brilliant lunar rainbow, exhibit- 
ing the prismatic colors very distinctly, but in its indefinite- 
ness of outline it bore the same relation to the solar rain- 
bow that moonlight does to sunlight. Though unusually 
bright, it had a dreamy, mysterious look that was fascina- 
ting rather than satisfying. We have had little opportu- 
nity to study the sea in its various moods ; it was almost an 
unbroken calm. 

The first day after leaving San Francisco, while we were 
in the vicinity of the land, we had one of those long ground 
swells which are so apt to turn the thoughts inward, and 
many of our passengers seemed to feel in duty bound to 
conform to the custom of the sea. Their meditations, if I 
were to judge from their visages, became by no means 
sweet ; but when we were once fairly on the bosom of the 
deep, the}^ all smiled again, and our voyage was as pleasant 
as one could desire. We had one little episode, which only 
helped us to appreciate fair weather and a smooth sea. On 
the seventeenth day out, as we were seated at the lunch- 
table, a heavy gale struck us broadside, and the grand old 
ship made a graceful bow sideways. For several hours the 
wind blew a pretty stiff gale, lashing up the sea and spread- 
ing the whitecaps profusely over its surface. At dinner 
we found the racks upon the table to hold our soup and 
other eatables fast and prevent their reaching our laps too 
summarily instead of going down the natural way. For 
some reason unexplained, several of the passengers con- 
cluded they would not take diimer that day, but matters 
became more quiet in the course of the night, and all went 
on smoothly again. 

But whatever of variety was wanting in the sea and its 
changes was abundantly supplied by our occupations and 
diversions on shipboard. It does not require much to 



74: AROUND THE WORLD. 

amuse a child, and not much more to entertain grown-up 
men and women at sea. In a long voyage, every incident; 
however trifling, is invested with an importance which 
would be incomprehensible to those on shore. This is not 
because we become children in going to sea, but because, in 
some circumstances, we must make the most of every thing. 

It took us two or three days to get used to the sea and 
to one another, and to learn each other's histories (it is 
wonderful what an amount of information, good and bad, 
in regard to one another, we do gather up in the course of 
two or three days), and then little groups began to form 
and to pass an occasional hour on deck, or in the upper 
saloon, in singing home songs, all of them sacred, but not 
all religious. Then we had afternoon lectures, and in the 
evenings literary readings, and sometimes there were games 
in which the large children joined with as much zest as 
any of the small children. And then we had puzzles of 
various kinds, and charades, and the whole portfolio of 
amusements laid up in the past was overhauled, and all 
that was available was brought out and brought into requi- 
sition. Our good Captain Freeman and others of the ship's 
officers were as big boys and as good boys as any on board, 
and all seemed ready to perform their parts. 

We had been but a few days at sea when some of the 
passengers determined to get up a newspaper, and accord- 
ingly issued a Prospectus, giving the reasons for such an 
undertaking, the chief of which was that no American can 
live without his newspaper, and that it is as essential in the 
midst of this wide ocean as upon any narrow strip of land. 
One of the objects to be advocated by the paper was the 
obtaining from the powers that be eight instead of four 
meals a day, and an unlimited increase in the speed of the 
ship. The first number of the paper, which was semi- 
weekly, and was called " The Ocean Wave," was issued 
on Saturday, September 11th, and was received with great 
favor by its numerous subscribers. I make some extracts 
from the opening number : 



ON TSE PACIFIC. fj^ 

"Passengers onboard the steam-ship 'Japan,' who lie awake 
by night and sleep by day, must have noticed that the steam- 
er regularly lays to at about 4 o'clock in the morning. The 
officers of the steamer, with a disingenuousness that merits 
the severest reprobation, have endeavored to convey the im- 
pression that this is done to enable the steward to go a fish- 
ing, and that he thus catches a daily supply of codfish balls, 
potted sardines, and stufi^ed crabs ; also that some of the crew 
are at the same time sent ashore for fresh cabbage and tur- 
nips. The reporters of 'The Ocean Wave' (Long may it 
wave !), with their well-known vigilance, have been on the 
alert, and have made the discovery that the P. M. S. S. Co. 
have a telegraph wire laid across the Pacific Ocean, with sta- 
tions at regular intervals, and that the steamer is stopped 
every morning to communicate with either shore to learn 
the price of pork and beans, that the quantity allowed for 
lunch may be regulated accordingly. The conductors of 
'The Ocean Wave' (Long may it wave !), after a protracted 
negotiation with the Company at New York, carried on 
through the Pacific Cable at incredible expense, such as none 
but a well-established journal like our own could incur, have 
made arrangements to receive the news from all parts of the 
world up to the hour of our going to press. We are thus 
enabled to present to our readers the following interesting 
and important intelligence from both continents." 

Then follows a list of head-lines, among wbicli are the 
following : 

"Highly important intelligence from all parts of theWorld." 
"Earthquake at San Francisco : Great loss of life and destruc- 
tion of Property." " Sanguinary Battle between the Bulls 
and Bears in New York City." " Brilliant Reception of the 
President at Communipaw." "Diabolical Conspiracy against 
the Emperor of France," etc., etc. 

I give below a specimen of the dispatches : 
"Scm J^rancisco, 9 o'clock P.M., Sept. 10, 1869. Our ancient 
and venerable city has again been visited by one of those ter- 
rible calamities to which tropical countries are liable. Earlj^ 
this afternoon portentous signs of the coming visitation awak- 
ened intense apprehension among our citizens, who are pro- 
verbial for their calmness on all occasions. The wind sud- 
denly died away to a stiff" gale ; ladies were seen in some in- 
stances in their cloaks, but without furs ; gentlemen were 
content to wear a single overcoat, carrying the other on the 



76 AROUND THE WOBLD. 

arm : one could walk the entire distance from the post-office 
to the Occidental without swallowing more than his peck of 
dirt. Such indications as these could not fail to produce in- 
tense excitement. About an hour after sunset a low rumbling 
sound was heard, coming apparently from the direction of 
Monte Diablo, and soon there was a heavy shaking of the 
earth. Some of the curb-stone brokers who were enjoying 
themselves at a restaurant on Montgomery Street, supposing 
the end of the world had come, and wishing to stave it oft" 
until they had secured the payment of notes due the next 
day, rushed into the street and gave the alarm. The fire- 
bells instantly sounded the preconcerted signal, and the citi- 
zens generally, after throwing their chinaware out of the win- 
dows to save as much as possible from the general wreck, at- 
tempted to save their lives by making for public squares, 
which happily abound in San Francisco. The crowd became 
so great at the intersection of Montgomery andMarket Streets 
— a narrow pass — that they trampled one upon another in 
wild confusion, and a fearful loss of life ensued. Some say as 
many as three hundred persons — men, women, and children — 
perished ; others put the estimate as low as two women and 
one boy. 

" In the genei'al consternation that prevails, it is impossible 
to obtain accurate information in regard to the destruction 
of property, but it is reported that many of our finest build- 
ings are demolished. The magnificent and costly adobe struct- 
ures that once adorned our city are nearly all prostrate. A 
messenger just in from the Mission Dolores states that great 
seams have opened in the walls of that venerable pile. The 
new hotel, on Montgomery and Market Streets, appears to 
have suftered most severely ; as we passed it a few moments 
since, it was nearly level with the pavement. Scarcely a 
church in the city has a steeple standing. We shall collect 
farther information and send another dispatch in an hour or 
two. 

'■'-Later: 11 o'clock P.M. The first reports of the earth- 
quake were greatly exaggerated. It is ascertained that the 
rumbling noise and the jar were produced by the passage of 
a heavy dray with a ponderous casting from the Union Iron 
Works through Mission Street. No lives were lost. The 
steeples of the church which were supposed to have fallen 
had never been erected. The new hotel had been built only 
as far as the basement. The splendid pile of the Mission 
Dolores still stands in magnificent proportions, though rather 
the worse for years. The alarm has subsided. 



ON THE PACIFIC. 



77 



'■'■Paris, Sept. 10, 1869. For some days past the French cap- 
ital has been full of rumors of a foul conspiracy against the 
government and the emperor. Intense excitement was pro- 
duced on Monday morning by the following placard, which 
was found posted in various parts of the city, and some dar- 
ing; miscreant had fastened one to the entrance gate of the 
Louvre. 

'■'■'■What is the difference between the Emperor Napoleon 
and a Neapolitan beggar f 

" Every morning the placards were found replaced by mys- 
terious hands. It was evident that an attempt upon the life 
of the emperor was intended, or a conspiracy to reduce him 
to the abject condition of the lazzaroni of Italy, The police 
set themselves at work to ferret out the conspiracy, but with- 
out success. A meeting of the Supreme Council is to be held 
this morning to deliberate upon the alarming crisis. 

'■''Evening. The Council assembled at 9 o'clock this morn- 
ing. The emperor and empress were both present, bearing 
the marks of having spent a sleepless night, but their anxiety 
was relieved by a distinguished member, who gave the fol- 
lowing solution to the placard : 

" ' The one issues manifestoes, the other manifests toes with- 
out his shoes.' 

" Paris is again tranquil." 

The following was among the literary contributions : 

THE KNOT OF BLUE AND GRAY. 
" Upon my bosom lies 

A knot of blue and gray ; 
You ask me why ; tears fill my eyes 
As low to you I say 

" I had two brothers once, 

Warm-hearted, bold, and gay ; 
They left my side— one wore the blue. 
The other wore the gray. 

' ' One rode with Stonewall and his men, 
And joined his fate to Lee ; 
The other followed Shennan's march 
Triumphant to the sea. 

" Both fought for what they deemed the right, 
And died with sword in hand ; 
One sleeps amid Virginia's hills, 
And one in Georgia's sand. 

"The same sun shines upon their graves, 
My love unchanged must stay ; 
And so upon my bosom lies 
This knot of blue and gray." 



78 AROUND THE WORLD. 

One of our entertainments was a Chinese concert. There 
were 450 Chinamen on board, returning to their native land, 
all in the steerage. Even the wealthy Chinese prefer the 
steerage, where they have their cooking according to their 
national taste. On being told that there were some good 
musicians among them, a gentleman of our party, with the 
captain's permission, invited them aft into the saloon to 
give us a musical entertainment. There were three Chi- 
nese instruments — a sort of banjo, a kind of violin, and one 
indescribable ; another Chinaman did the vocal part, chief- 
ly on one note, and this through his nose. They were in 
harmony, and kept perfect time, the movement being very 
rapid, but the instruments had a range of only about half 
an octave, and after two or three tunes it became exces- 
sively tedious, and at length unendurable. We were to have 
another entertainment the same evening, but they held on 
their way with increasing vigor and spirit, until we all be- 
gan to be filled with consternation lest they should never 
stop. We could not inform them that enough was enough, 
and one piece after another followed without any interval. 
The gentleman who had got up the entertainment was the 
picture of distress, considering himself responsible for the 
hopeless condition into which he had brought ns. A col- 
lection was proposed and taken np, and presented to them, 
with the idea that this would end the matter, but it was in- 
dignantly refused, one of them saying in broken English 
they had ''plenty money" — they played "for fun," and 
would play " plenty more," and at it they went again with 
fresh vigor. He produced a gold watch to prove to us that 
he was able financially to hold out much longer. At last 
an interpreter was called in, a truce was obtained, and the 
other entertainment followed. 

But our most entertaining diversion on the long voyage 
was found in a trial which grew out of our failure to speak 
the returning ship. The two steamers which leave the op- 
posite shores of the Pacific are in the habit of meeting 
somewhere in mid-ocean to exchange mails. The science 



ON' THE PACIFIO. 79 

of navigation is now reduced to such a nicety of calcula- 
tion that in clear weather, when an observation can be ta- 
ken, a skillful seaman can tell within a quarter of a mile 
the precise point on the globe on which he is sailing, and 
can make an appointment to meet another vessel on any 
mile of the sea at any given time, and keep his appointment 
with unerring certainty. 

On leavins: San Francisco we were informed that we 
should meet the homeward-bound steamer about the ninth 
day out, as both would be sailing on the same parallel of 
latitude. Accordingly, we had a large number of letters 
written to surprise the friends at home. They were duly 
mailed, postage paid, but the returning steamer never made 
her appearance. When all hope of seeing her had gone 
by, the purser of the ship, who was mail-agent, was heard 
to say he never expected we should meet the ship, but that 
it was all the same to him, inasmuch as he had made his 
percentage on the sale of post-stamps, which he had bought 
for currency and sold for coin. 

Such an aggravated case of swindling coming upon the 
heels of our disappointment could not be suffered to pass 
without official investigation. A warrant for his arrest was 
issued by the proper authority, and he was brought before 
the judge of the United States Court of the Middle Dis- 
trict of the Pacific Ocean, in charge of the United States 
Marshal. He gave bail for his appearance on the follow- 
ing day, when the trial commenced. A jury was impan- 
neled, composed of equal numbers of ladies and gentlemen, 
and the trial proceeded according to the formalities of law, 
and continued through two days. Able counsel appeared 
for the prosecution, and also for the prisoner. A number 
of witnesses were examined and cross-examined, and, in ac- 
cordance with the precedents established by courts on land, 
a vast amount of interesting information was elicited hav- 
ing no reference to the case before the court. 

At the opening of the court on the second day the dis- 
trict attorney rose, and with great solemnity objected to the 



80 AROUND THE WORLD. 

farther trial of the case on the ground that one of the ju- 
rors had been heai'd to express an opinion favorable to the 
prisoner. The court inquired whether the juror objected 
to was a lady or a gentleman, and on being informed that 
it was a lady, decided that in such case it was no disquali- 
fication, inasmuch as from time immemorial ladies had en- 
joyed the privilege of expressing their minds as freely as 
they chose. When the testimony was all in, the case was 
argued with great ability, and, after a charge from the 
court, was submitted to the jury, who brought in a verdict 
of " Not guilty, but recommended to mercy." 

This trial was the most entertaining incident of the voy- 
age, and to record all the amusing and witty things that 
were said and done, and which often baffled all the efforts 
of the judge and marshal to preserve order in the court, 
would require a volume in law sheep. But it was worthy 
of being reported and preserved among the causes celebres. 

On the voyage we passed through one experience which 
was novel to most of us, and which occurs only on the Pa- 
cific Ocean. It was the dropping a day out of the calen- 
dar. We retired to our state-rooms and fell asleep on Fri- 
day night, the 17th of September, leaving every thing cor- 
rect according to the almanac. When we awoke the next 
morning we found that it was Sunday, the 19th, and we 
had not overslept ourselves. I went to the room of the first 
officer, whose duty it is to keep the log of the ship, in which 
every thing important is entered, and found he had made 
the f oUovdng record : 

'■^Sunday., 1 Qth day of September. ISTote. Having crossed 
the prime meridian, 1 80°, bound westward, Saturday, the 18th, 
is discarded, being called by name and date next following, 
as above." 

We were not without warning on the subject — indeed, it 
had been a matter of speculation for several days, as we 
were approaching the ISOth degree of longitude west and 
east of Greenwich, and all the more interest attached to it 
from the uncertainty as to what day we should cross that 



ON THE PACIFIC. 



81 



meridian. Had it been one day later, a Sunday would have 
been blotted out, and we should have gone to bed on Satur- 
day and got up on Monday. As it was, we were called to 
adj ust our feelings to what seemed an arbitrary change of 
the holy Sabbath from its proper place to one day earlier in 
the calendar. We did so, and kept the day as the Sabbath 
with clear consciences. Occasionally, during the morning, 
the thought would come into our minds that those whom 
we had left behind us were in the midst of Saturday, and 
tliat during our sleep we had made an extraordinary leap 
to get into Sunday, but, so far as my own feelings were con- 
cerned, the Sabbath was as holy as any that I have spent on 
sea or land. 

Every one knows that in traveling around the world 
from east to west a day is lost, for the same reason that if 
one could go round the world in twenty-four hours in the 
same direction, he would retain the same relative position 
to the sun, he would travel with the sun, and there would 
be no succession of day and night. So, in traveling more 
leisurely westward, a certain amount of time is added to 
each day, which, in making the circuit of the earth, would 
amount to an entire day. In order, therefore, to adjust his 
reckoning to the calendar of the place which he left, he 
must, at some point in the journey, pass over one day of 
that calendar as if he had not lived it, while, in reality, he 
has lived the whole time by lengthening every day in his 
journey. Where shall he make this change in his reckon- 
ing ? where shall he drop the day ? l!^avigators have an- 
swered this question by making the change on the 180th 
degree of longitude west or east of Greenwich (or London, 
which is practically the same thing). When they reach 
this meridian sailing westward, they drop a day ; when 
they reach it sailing eastward, they repeat a day. If it 
comes on Saturday, eastward bound, they have two Satur- 
days in succession ; if on Sunday, two Sundays ; and so of 
any other day. 

This matter of dropping a day derives its chief interest 

F 



S2 ABOUND THE WORLD. 

from its relation to the Christian Sabbath, and in tliis re- 
spect it has an importance which I have not seen attributed 
to it. It actually solves some questions which have been 
the theme of distracting controversy. 

The shape of our world, and its revolution on its axis, 
make it an absolute impossibility that its inhabitants should 
all commence keeping the Sabbath at the same time. As 
the sun rises earlier upon one land than another, so must 
the inhabitants of those lands enter upon sacred time at 
different periods. There is no more actual correspondence 
between New York and London in regard to the Sabbath 
than there is between San Francisco and Japan, although 
in traveling between the two former places no change of 
reckoning is made, while the change of a day is made in 
passing to and fro between the two latter. There is a dif- 
ference of one hour for every fifteen degrees of longitude 
in the commencement and close of each day, so that in re- 
ality the whole world are keeping different periods for the 
Sabbath, according to their localities. This divests the 
question as to the precise time that we shall observe as the 
Sabbath of its moral character, provided we are keeping as 
near as possible to an observance of the command to keep 
holy every seventh day. It becomes, in some circumstan- 
ces, a question of longitude rather than of morals. If I 
leave San Francisco (as 1 did) on Saturday, the 4:th of Sep- 
tember, and should reach Yokohama on the morning of the 
21st — which would be Saturday according to my reckoning 
— I should find Christian people keeping the Sabbath day ; 
it would be Sunday, although there are only ninety-five de- 
grees of longitude, or six and one third hours of time, be- 
tween the two places. Am I bound in conscience to con- 
tinue to keep my day as the Sabbath, and thus be at vari- 
ance with all the Christian people whom I may meet ? If 
so, I must continue to do it the rest of my journey in Asia 
and Europe, and when I reach America, and during the 
whole of my future life, unless I should chance to make a 
Journey round the world the other way, from west to east, 



ON THE PACIFIC. §3 

which M^oulcl bring me right again. It is evident that per- 
fect uniformity in this respect is impracticable, and that 
the common consent of Christians around me becomes a 
duty, as long as it is impossible to keep the same hours 
which I have observed at home. If I were to attempt to 
do the latter, I must needs commence my Sabbath at ten 
o'clock A.M. on reaching Yokohama, going west, and at 
twelve o'clock at noon on reaching Singapore. 

There is no other point or line on the world's surface so 
favorable for making the change in reckoning, for dropping 
or adding a day, as that which has been taken by English 
and American navigators, the ISOtli degree of longitude, at 
which the reckoning from east to west longitude, or the re- 
verse, commences. This line falls in the middle of the Pa- 
cific Ocean, where there are no inhabitants to be affected 
by the change excepting on the scattered islands of the sea, 
and, in sailing east or west, there is a vast expanse of water 
to cross before coming to Christian settlements. I felt no 
scruple, therefore, in conforming to a conventional rule, 
though it has not the force of a moral law, in dropping one 
day out of my diary, or in stepping at once out of Friday 
night into Sunday morning, because I must at some point 
in my journey round the world make my calendar agree 
with the w^orld in which I expect to live, and this is alto- 
gether the most suitable point at which to do it. 

I have alluded to the bearings of this subject on some of 
the controversies which divide the Christian Church. There 
is in the United States a sect of Christians called the Sev- 
enth-day Baptists, numbering several thousands, whose 
name indicates that they are cut off, or have cut themselves 
off from their brethren by their conscientious convictions 
that the seventh day of the week, or our Saturday, ought 
to be observed as the Christian Sabbath. Now, if one of 
the members of that Church would accompany me around 
the world, having passed the prime meridian we should be 
in harmony on this point — we should both be keeping the 
same day as the Sabbath, for he, of course, would be con- 



84 AEOUND THE WOELD. 

scientiously opposed to making any change. He would be 
in harmony with the mass of Christians as we pass along 
westward, but when we reach the United States he would 
be one day in advance of the Church to which he belongs. 
He would then be a regular first-day Baptist. So of the 
Jews, who strictly observe the seventh day as the Sabbath. 
A voyage around the world would convert them, whether 
they were willing or not. Might it not be a legitimate 
course for seventh-day-Sabbath Christians and for Jews to 
appoint a delegation to go around the world from east to 
west, agreeing to abide by their experience when they 
should return and make their report, just as we adopt the 
reports of committees on other matters when we are satis- 
fied as to their correctness ? This would bring the whole 
Christian and the Jewish world into the harmonious ob- 
servance of one day as the Sabbath, and it would involve 
no moi-e sacrifice of principle on the part of any members 
of these denominations than it would for any one of them 
to make the change in his reckoning in going aronnd the 
world, which every one would probably do who should ac- 
complish the circuit of the earth. 

There are in the Pacific Ocean two groups of islands not 
far from each other, on nearly the same degree of longi- 
tude, although both of them east of the prime meridian, 
the inhabitants of which observe diffei-ent days as the Sab- 
bath. These are the Sandwich and the Society Islands. 
The reason of this diversity is to be found in the fact that 
the missionaries who carried the institutions of the Bible 
with them sailed from different lands and in different di- 
rections, meeting, as it were, midway in the journey around 
the world. The missionaries to the Sandwich Islands sail- 
ed from the United States, going westward by Cape Horn. 
The missionaries to the Society Islands sailed from En- 
gland, going eastward around the Cape of Good Hope, but, 
as they crossed the 180th degree of east longitude, they 
should have made a change in the day, which would have 
brought them into accord with the inhabitants of the Sand- 
wich Islands. 



EXCUESIONS IN JAPAN. ' g5 

If there is any answer to the old problem, Where does 
the day begin, it is this : At the 180th degree of longitude, 
east or west. This is the only line on which there is an ar- 
bitrary change or commencement of a day, but, as a practi- 
cal thing, the day begins all around the world, not at the 
same moment of time, but just as the sun visits different 
parts of the earth at successive periods in the twenty-four 
hours. The time will never come when the day will begin- 
all over the world at the same moment, or when the whole 
world will be keeping the same hours as the holy Sabbath, 
until the earth is flattened out and becomes a plane instead 
of a globe. With the present shape of our world it would 
be as much an impossibility as for the sun to rise upon ev- 
ery part of the globe at the same instant of time. 



EXCURSIONS IN JAPAN. 



Sunday, the 26th of September (according to our reck- 
oning, after dropping a day into the ocean), was the twen- 
ty-first day out from San Francisco. Toward evening I 
was on deck with Captain Freeman, when he remarked 
that about two o'clock the next morning we should have a 
sight of a point of one of the Japanese islands ; a pretty 
close calculation, I thought, even for an old sailor, after be- 
ing three weeks without a glimpse of any thing earthly. 
Accordingly, I was on the lookout soon after midnight, and 
sure enough, within an hour of the time indicated, the dim 
outline of the shore became visible. 

I have been at sea when the sight of land was far more 
welcome, for this voyage was upon a summer sea, and un- 
der sunny skies nearly all the way, and the time had pass- 
ed pleasantly on shipboard ; but it was a joy again to see 
the solid earth, and the green shores of Japan are among 
the most beautiful of any that skirt the seas. When the 



86 



AROUND THE WORLD. 



morning dawned, and M^e drew near the shores, covered 
profusely with verdure and foliage, the hills and the val- 
leys had all the brilliancy of color of the Irish coast, with 
an endless variety of contour, and an originality of surface 
that made the whole scene one of great beauty without the 
element of grandeur. The sacred mountain of fire, Fusi- 
yama, the glory of Japan, which the Japanese, as by a sense 
of religions duty, put into every picture and on every article 
that they manufacture, rose up about sixty miles distant. 
The volcano, though not active, forms a lively feature in 
the landscape. In clear weather it may be seen more than 
a hundred miles out at sea. 




ENTBANOE TO TUE Gin.r OP TEDDO. 



As we steamed np the Gulf of Yeddo, the scene became 
more and more animated and Japanese in its aspect. Great 
numbers of fishing-boats, with their square sails rudely 
hung against the masts, were putting out from the shore 
on their daily errand, and shoals of smaller boats, sculled 
by native Japanese, Avere plying aronnd. Occasionally a 
palm-tree would show itself on the shore, but the pine and 
the fir, and other evergreens for which Japan is celebrated, 
abounded all along the shore. Now and then a bamboo 
grove, with its light bluish-green and feathery foliage, not 



EXCURSIONS m JAPAK S7 

only one of the most beautiful, but really the most useful 
vegetable growth in the world, would diversify the velvety 
landscape. The narrow valleys running back from the wa- 
ter were green with rice-fields, and the terraced hills with 
different crops. 

In the Gulf of Yeddo we met a steamer bearing the fa- 
miliar flag, outward bound. We afterward learned that 
she was going out to the relief of the United States ship of 
war Idaho, which had sailed the week before for home, via 
Cape Horn, in perfect trim. She had only fairly got to 
sea when she was overtaken by a typhoon and reduced to 
a mere wreck. One of the officers whom I met at Yoko- 
hama told me that for an hour and a half the ship lay in 
the centre of this circular gale in a dead calm, waiting for 
the circumference to strike them. When the shock came 
she was dismasted and so shaken as to be utterly unsea- 
worthy, and I learned afterward that she was sold for an 
old hulk. So accurately had we timed it in reaching the 
coast of Japan the week after the equinox. 

We were soon entering the harbor of Yokohama, the 
principal port of Japan, in which vessels of all nations, 
men-of-war and merchantmen, were lying at anchor, and 
giving the bay a familiar look. The Stars and Stripes 
were displayed from a number of ships. The firing of our 
gun and the dropping of the anchor brought around us a 
swarm of native boats, all propelled with sculls by Japan- 
ese men and women almost as innocent of clothing as when 
they were born. Some of them brought residents on board 
to look after friends, and others came to take ashore the 
passengers, most of whom were to land at Yokohama, to 
remain, or be transferred, like ourselves, to the steamer for 
Shanghae. 

In the course of the morning our luggage was piled into 
one of the boats, and ourselves into another propelled by 
five lusty natives, who at every stroke of their sculls sent 
forth a groan or wail which would now and then break 
into a scream more novel than pleasing. We landed in 



88 AROUND THE WORLD. 

the midst of a crowd of coolies absolutely naked, with the 
exception of two or three inches of cotton cloth about tlieir 
loins, and then came the strife for the baggage. But it was 
a far better-mannered crowd than one will find in any civ- 
ilized country in which I ever landed. After tlie formali- 
ty of opening one of our numerous trunks by a Japanese 
custom-house official, who politely bowed that it was all 
right and did not wait for any fee, the crowd of naked coo- 
lies divided off into separate squads. All remained quiet 
while two or three of their number were making some ar- 
rangement in regard to our luggage, I could not tell what. 
I soon found that they were preparing to draw lots to see 
w^hich squad should have the porterage. The lots were 
little ropes of straw, curiously intertwined, and bound to- 
gether by a band of straw. The band was severed, and 
. with a shout the coolies all lifted their hands. Four of the 
strands were found to be tied by another band, indicating 
the four fortunate coolies, the rest submitting without a 
sign of dissatisfaction. I could not avoid the inw^ard ex- 
clamation, " Oh that coolies, and carmen, and hackmen 
in some other lands that I have seen would cast lots for 
their passengers instead of tearing them to pieces !" The 
whole carrying biisiness of Yokohama is done by these 
coolies, four of them — two in front and two behind the 
cart — sometimes taking ajton_,and a half at-^ load. In 
drawing and pushing their rude cartsHreyseem tolJe great- 
ly assisted by a monotonous groan or shout emitted at ev- 

j Q \ ery step, more piercing than that of the boatmen. 

* That part of Yokohama which we enter on landing is 

not a Japanese town, but built and occupied by foreigners, 

-^i and has none of the characteristics of a native city. There 
is no wharf, a wide bund or street extending nearly a mile 
along the water, on the shore-side of which the foreign 
merchants have their bungalows and offices. Some of these 
■ are surrounded with walls, the j^ards being ornamented with 
Oriental shrubbery and plants, including the beautiful ev- 
ergreens. Many of the foreign merchants reside on the 



EXC URSIONS m JAPA K S 9 

high bkiff overlooking the town and the bay, which affords 
a line view of the country as it stretches out toward Fusi- 
yama. Kanagawa, about three miles across a small bay, 
was first selected as the foreign port for Yeddo, but Yoko- 
hama was substituted, and it has now a foreign population 
of about 2000. It has become the principal foreign port 
of the empire, and is a place of much activity in business, 
especially on the arrival or departure of a steamer. These 
events infuse new energy into the whole population, from 
the merchants, who just then are overwhelmed with their 
correspondence, down to the coolies and boatmen, to whom 
steamer-days are harvests. During the intervals all classes 
take things more quietly. 

Yokohama is likewise the residence of the foreign min- 
isters. For a time they M-ere located at Yeddo, but the hos- 
tility of the Yakonins made it unsafe. The British em- 
bassy was attacked, the inmates put to the sword, and the 
residence burned. After passing through many perils the 
foreign representatives concluded to try a location that was 
more salubrious. 

We remained at Yokohama over one steamer in order 
to visit Yeddo and to make some excursions into the coun- 
try. One of the most interesting of these .was to the statue 
of Daiboots, fifteen or twenty miles distant, and near the 
ancient capital of the Tycoons, the extinct city of Kama- 
kura. The whole region of country is strikhigly beautiful, 
and indeed the whole island, and, so far as I have seen it, 
the whole empire of Japan. The common roads or paths, 
with a single exception, are not wide enough to allow the 
passage of wheels, and ordinarily one must choose betw^een 
riding Japanese ponies (the most vicious domestic brutes 
that I have met), being carried by coolies in a sedan chair, 
or going on foot. We made a sort of compromise, send- 
ing our horses forward twelve miles to meet us on the 
way, while we made the first part of the excursion by wa- 
ter. 

We left Yokohama in the morning in a covered sail-boat 



90 AROUND THE WORLD. 

manned by six Japanese sailors, who, in their rude way, are 
expert seamen, and sailed through a part of the Gulf of 
Yeddo that was thoroughly explored by the Perry Expedi- 
tion. It was so unfortunate as to receive a quantity of 
Yankee names in place of those, far more appropriate and 
musical, that they had worn for centuries. We passed in 
sight of Perry and Webster Islands, through Mississippi 
Bay, and moored our bark in Goldsboroiigli Inlet. I ha\e 
not the Japanese originals at command, but, from the gen- 
eral beauty of the names with which I am familiar, I am 
sure that all these places " would smell as sweet" if they 
had been left to Avear those they had worn from time im- 
memorial. The Japanese names of towns, and rivers, and 
seas are singularly beautiful. The language itself, as spok- 
en by the people, is musical, a decided contrast to the Chi- 
nese. It is not unlike the Italian in this respect. 

Kanagawa is the residence of one of the Daimios, a place 
of some importance, and a charming spot. We landed at 
a romantic tea-house, a great resort for excursionists, and 
the arrival of our party with an order for tiffin produced 
no little stir among the occupants. One was off with a net 
to the tank near by ; in a few moments some of the excel- 
lent fish with which the waters of Japan abound were on 
the coals, and it was but a short time until they were before 
us. Another was busied in preparing the universal bever- 
age, which in Japan, as in China, is a simple infusion of tea, 
without milk or sugar, and almost without taste. But our 
own capacious lunch-basket supplied all deficiencies. The 
whole thing was made ready with wonderful celerity, and 
we were served with an ease and an air of politeness that 
I have not seen excelled in New York or Paris. While 
our horses were made ready I walked to an old Shintoo 
temple near the tea-house, and then to one of the beautiful 
groves of bamboo which abound in the islands ; the reeds, 
which were only three or four inches in diameter, shooting 
up to the height of sixty or seventy feet, and the graceful 
branches spreading out at the top like plumes, forming a 




JAPANESE TEMPLE. 



92 AROUND THE WORLD. 

perfect canopy. There is no vegetable production in the 
East — none in all the world that is applied to more uses 
than the bamboo, which is a species of grass. Not even 
the palm, in all its varieties, is more useful. The roots are 
made into preserves, and the young shoots are eaten. The 
Jaj)anese often build their houses entirely of bamboo — 
beams, posts, i-afters, siding, and thatch ; while the scaffold- 
ing, ropes, and ladders which they employ in building are 
made of the same. Nearly every article of furniture in 
the house is bamboo — chairs (so far as they have any), bed- 
steads and beds, stools, tables, and stands. Their most com- 
mon utensils are made exclusively or in part of bamboo — 
tools, brooms, buckets and dippers, measures, and boxes of 
all kinds ; the chop-sticks with which they eat, baskets, and 
trays. Ornaments of all kinds, musical instruments, um- 
brellas, cloth, paper, books, and pens, come from the same 
source. Boats are built and rigged throughout of bamboo. 
Scarcely any thing, indeed, in the whole economy of Japa- 
nese life can be named that is not made in whole or in part 
from this invaluable production of nature. In China, too, 
it is an important element in government, occupying a 
more indispensable place than birch in America. It is said 
that China could not be governed without the bamboo. A 
catalogue of its various uses would fill many pages. 

Every thing being in readiness for our ride, I selected a 
sober-looking animal from among the ponies that were 
brought up, but I was no sooner in the saddle than he 
plunged his heels into the side of one of his neighbors, just 
missing the leg of the rider. His next move was to rear 
and strike the shoulders of the same horse with his foie 
feet, as if challenging him to single combat. Often during 
the ride of twelve miles, when he found another horse gain- 
ing upon him, he would suddenly stop and let fly his heels, 
regardless of where they hit. I kept my seat with difficul- 
ty ; but afterward, while riding another of the same delight- 
ful animals, I was thi'O^m completely over his head, strik- 
ing upon my shoulder, and. escaping without any material 



94 AROUND THE WOBLD. 

injury other than bruises. Some fared worse. One gen- 
tleman whom M^e met on the way was thrown from his 
horse three times, after which he conchided to make use of 
his own legs. These were a fair specimen of the Japanese 
horses — a wild, unmanageable race of animals. 

The route from Kanagawa to Daiboots la}'' through a 
succession of narrow, beautiful valleys, every inch of which 
seemed to be under cultivation, one tier of rice-fields rising 
above another by a very slight gradation. We crossed a 
range of hills and struck into a ravine, through which ran 
a rapid stream, breaking frequently into beautiful cascades. 
The stream was skirted on either side with large camellia- 
trees, a variety of evergreens, and the ever-beautiful bam- 
boo. Passing through several small villages, we were con- 
stantly greeted with the cry from men, w^omen, and chil- 
dren, "0-ha-yo" — equivalent to our "Good-morning," or 
" How are 3'ou ?" which it resembles in sound. Hostility 
to foreigners is confined almost exclusively to the cities, 
and even there to the Yakonins. At the end of a two- 
hours' ride we were on the site of the ancient capital, Kam- 
akura. 

All that remains of a city, which must have been one of 
great magnificence, is a cluster of large temples, in which 
are preserved numerous relics of the Tycoons of other ages. 
A grand avenue, nearly two hundred feet wide, leads down 
to the sea, two miles distant. The- site of the city, which 
was destroyed in a war long, long ago, is now a fertile field. 
Two miles farther on is the statue of Buddha, known as 
the statue of Daiboots. It is a lonely relic of a past age, 
having been erected, according to the best accounts, about 
600 years ago. It is colossal in size, of the finest bronze, 
and executed with wonderful skill, the joints between the 
several plates being so completely formed as scarcely to 
show a seam. The countenance is strikingly expressive of 
profound contemplation, completely fulfilling the tradi- 
tional ideas of Buddha. The height of the statue, M^hich 
is in a sitting posture, is about forty feet. Considering the 




STATUE AT DAIBOOTS. 



96 AMOUND THE WOULD. 

remote age in whicli it was produced, and tlie simplicity 
of the people at that period, it is a remarkable work of art. 
The lofty temple, which must have inclosed, or at least cov- 
ered it, has long since disappeared, and for centuries, in a 
lonely nook among tlie hills, this statue has sat in silent 
meditation, exposed to the storms wliich come in from the 
neighboring sea, but as fresh and uninj ured as when it was 
erected. There is no greater curiosity in Japan tlian this 
statue, of which there is no authentic record, excepting that 
it has stood in the wilderness for centuries, having once 
been surrounded by the teeming population of a splendid 
capital. 

The day being far spent, we were not able to reach the 
island of Inosima, which, with the intervening country, was 
described to us as more beautiful than any thing we had 
seen. As it was, the darkness had gathered round us be- 
fore we reached Kanagawa and regained our boat, and 
neither wind nor tide favoring us, it was near midnight 
when we landed at Yokohama. But the night was mild 
and beautiful, and the brilliant stars shone down upon us 
as we lay upon the deck quietly enjoying the sail. The 
sea itself was like a sea of fire, the phosphorescence light- 
ing up the scene as by submarine lights. 

There are many other excursions to be made from Yoko- 
hama, the country in all directions being romantic and in- 
viting. There is much sameness, but it is the sameness of 
beauty, which does not weary. The valleys are a striking 
feature in Japanese scenery, never stretching out into w^ide 
plains, but exquisite gems exquisitely set in the cultivated, 
terraced hills which inclose them. They wind like streams 
among the hills, constantly opening up some new scene of 
beauty at every vista. 

A visit to Yeddo, which the geographers in our youthful 
days assured us was the most populous city on the globe, 
was one of the chief attractions of a journej^ to Japan, but 
on landing in the country it became a matter of doubt 
whether we should see this . great and mysterious city at 



EXCUBSlOm IN JAPAN. g-j- 

all. The hostility of the Yakonins, the two-sworded men 
of the empire, always most marked at the capital, had 
become more pronounced than usual. Only the week pre- 
vious. Sir Harry Parkes, the English minister, was attack- 
ed in the usual style, while riding in the streets of Yeddo, 
attended by his own servants and the Japanese guard. He 
escaped without personal injury, but the horse of one of 
his attendants received a sabre blow which was aimed at 
the rider. 

The traditional aversion of the Japanese to all inter- 
course with the outer world is by no means so strong as that 
of the Chinese, nor so general, but even in Japan there are 
certain classes whose interest it is to keep alive this exclu- 
siveness and hatred to foreigners. The government, from 
time immemorial, has used everj^ art to keep out foreign 
ideas and foreign influence, and within the last few years 
has resorted to all the devices of Oriental dij)lomacy, of 
which duplicity is the chief, to delay the inevitable result ; 
and if it has not instigated the violence which has been 
fatal to many foreigners, those who are in the interest of 
the government have done the deeds. 

The Samourai, or Yakonins, compose a considerable 
portion of the population, and form the dangerous element 
of society, dangerous at least to foreigners. They are the 
retainers and fighting-men of the Daimios, and one of their 
characteristics is that they never appear in the streets un- 
less armed with two swords, a long and a short one. The 
long sword is heavy, of the finest tempered steel, and kept 
always as sharp as a razor. This sword, which is worn 
constantly by tlie Yakonins, is the instrument used for de- 
capitation in capital punishment, one blow from a strong 
hand completely severing the head from the body. It 
would readily cleave through a man's skull or take a limb 
from his body. These tw^o-sworded men — the gentry of 
the country, as they consider themselves — have the stron- 
gest reason to oppose any change that would deprive them 
of their position and living. Having little or nothing to 

G 



98 ABOUND THE WORLD. 

do, they indulge freely in the intoxicating cup, and when 
drunk on the streets are very ready to express their dislike 
to foreigners by trying the temper of their swords upon 
them. As in some civilized regions, drunkenness is the 
immediate instigating cause of nearly all the assaults that 
are made. The chief peril of the traveler arises from tlie 
suddenness with which the assailants make their attack. 
The blow comes like a flash of lightning out of a clear sky, 
and the assailants disappear as suddenly. 

After much deliberation on the subject, we came to the 
conclusion that we might as well not have come to Japan 
at all as not to go to Yeddo ; and we went. The city is at 
the head of the bay on which Yokohama is situated, and a 
little more than twenty miles distant There was at that 
time no regular communication between the two places, 
and intercourse, excepting among the Japanese, was not en- 
couraged by the government. For our party of eight we 
had two carriages, driven by colored men, natives of the 
United States, who had been several years in Japan. The 
carriages, as well as the drivers, were importations. 

Our baggage was sent on before us by coolies, who make 
nearl}^ as good time on the road as the native horses. Each 
carriage had a iettoe, who is literally a footman. Every 
one who keeps a horse in Japan has a hettoe, who is insep- 
arable from the horse at home and on the road. In riding 
or driving he runs with the horse, and is always ready to 
take him by the head and guide him, especially in turning 
a corner, the horses having little regard for the bit. The 
hettoes are as fleet of foot as the North American Indians, 
and will travel as fast and as far in a day as the horse. 
They are naked, with the exception of the little strip of 
cloth around the loins ; but, in lieu of clothing, they are 
often tattooed from the shoulders to the knees in colors, 
red, and blue, and other dark shades, which gives them a pic- 
turesque appearance. When we arrived at Yeddo our het- 
toes were as fresh as when we started from Yokohama, show- 
ing far less signs of weariness than the horses themselves. 



lOQ ABOUND THE WORLD. 

The Tokaido, or imperial highway, the only road in Ja- 
pan that can be traveled by carriage, extends from one end 
of the island of Niphon to the other, about three hundred 
miles, passing directly through the capital, and connecting- 
it with Yokohama or Kanagawa. The drive between the 
two cities is one of the most interesting in the world. Lit- 
tle of nature is to be seen, but from first to last it is like a 
drive through a museum, a grand curiosity-shop ; the To- 
kaido, the whole twenty-two miles, being a succession of 
the same beautiful little sliops, with neatly-arranged wares, 
useful and ornamental, which line the streets of all the cit- 
ies of Japan. These shops are small, but the fronts are 
open to the street, and every thing they contain can be seen 
at a glance. Once or twice there was a slight break in the 
succession of shops and tea-houses, where the ground was 
low and occupied by rice-fields, but art soon resumed its 
sway. 

Nor was this apparently endless, but ever-changing pan- 
orama of art, though exclusively Japanese and novel in its 
character, the most interesting of the sights to be seen on 
the way. The living panorama was by far the most strik- 
ing and entertaining. The Japanese are a migratory peo- 
ple in their tastes, always on the move, either for business 
or pleasure ; and from Yokohama to the capital we passed 
tlirough a living swarm of people, representing all the 
phases of this peculiar race. 

I scarcely know where to begin in describing the throng 
that was moving to and fro, or stationary by the roadside, 
within and in front of the shops. I may as well begin at 
the lowest element — the naked coolies, who were carrying 
burdens of every sort on their shoulders, or more generally 
swung upon a pole that rested on the shoulders of two or 
four men, as the burden might require ; or who were car- 
rying travelers in norimons or hangos, the carriages of the 
country, answering to the sedan chair of China and India. 
So numerous was this class of travelers that it often seemed 
as if two thirds of the whole population were carrying the 



EXCURSIONS IN JAPAN. 



101 



V^-s-^ 




JAPANESE KANGO. 



other third on their shoulders. About the same proportion 
of the people and the same variety of classes travel in this 
wa}^ in Japan as in the omnibus or car in one of our cities. 
Then would come passengers of all sorts on foot, and their 
feet on high clogs or straw sandals, going on errands we 
knew not what ; men and women, the latter with children 
lashed to their backs, the universal method of carrying chil- 
dren in this comitry, and one which does not seem to, in- 
terfere with any of the occupations of the people, either in 
the house or the field ; then would come traveling mer- 
chants, with their wares carried by attendants : and every 
now and then we would come upon some haughty-looking, 
two-sworded official on horseback, with attendants, and re- 
ceive from him a sinister look as he passed, saying as much 
as " What business have you pantalooned and petticoated 
foreigners in this country, and on this Tokaido ?" 

And now we would meet some jolly crowd, or find them 
assembled at the tea-houses by the way, and receive from 
them the pleasant salutation 0-Jia-yo (good morning), or a 
smile and a graceful bow ; and then we would jostle one 
of the pack-horses of the country bearing towering loads, 
the heels of the vicious beasts scattering the people right 
and left ; here would come a Buddhist priest, Avith his 
head completely shaved, and looking in the upper story 



102 



AROUND THE WORLD. 




JAPANESE BESTING. 



very much like a new-born 
.baby, and tliere a professor 
of the heahng art, equally 
guiltless of hair, and hav- 
ing an equally sage appear- 
ance. Often we came upon 
groups and single persons 
sitting upon their haunches 
in a curious attitude, which 
we found was the way the 
people rest themselves 
when fatigued. All over 
Japan we noticed the same 
peculiar custom. 
An open space on the way was devoted to a miserable 
race of beggars, some of them diseased and others deform- 
ed, who were importunate in their cries for a tempo, one of 
the smallest coins. At frequent intervals an opening in 
the shops revealed a beautiful grove or square, with a Shin- 
too or Buddhist temple, although few, if any, worshipers 
were to be seen. The tea-houses occurred frequently ; and, 
as we stopped at any one of them to rest our horses, or for 
a relay, or to conform to the general custom of travelers on 
the Tokaido to take a cup of tea, a damsel would come 
out to the carriage, and with a respectful, easy bow, and a 
0-ha-yo, hand up a tray of tiny cups of tea, which it was 
our duty to drink as often as it was handed, although it 
was such a weak infusion of the leaf as to make it more 
like medicine than a beverage. The Japanese know noth- 
ing of the delicious decoction, well creamed and sweetened, 
which cheers the hearts of the housewives, and house-hus- 
bands too, in other and distant lands. 

As we approached Yeddo, the shops, which are almost 
invariabl}'' fronts of houses, became wider and more impos- 
ing, though never rising above a second, and seldom above 
a first story, being spread out upon the ground. Through 
the openings we could look back into the most exquisite 



104 AROUND THE WORLD. 

little yards or gardens, ornamented with flowers and the 
dwarfed evergreens, of which there is a great variety all 
over Japan. 

And now we are entering the suburbs of Yeddo, and 
now the city itself. The crowd increases, and becomes 
more and more curious, the ladies of our party (as do the 
ladies every where) attracting tlie most attention. The 
people all along the street, as if out on a holiday, stand and 
stare and laugh as we pass, as if we were the flrst of our 
kind ever seen in Yeddo. Passing through one of the many 
gates within the city, which seem designed for police pur- 
poses and not for defense, we meet a Japanese regiment of 
soldiers, and give them a wnde berth, while laughing most 
heartily in our sleeves at the grotesque, tatterdemalion ap- 
pearance they make. They reminded us strongly of the 
fantasticals of our own city. The bass-drummer was a 
real Falstaff, the sight of whom would have thrown Ho- 
garth into an ecstasy of delight. 

On reaching Yeddo we were driven to the Niphon Hotel, 
the finest hotel in the empire, and one which would not dis- 
credit any city in the world. No passports and no passes 
were demanded, although, in crossing a river ten or twelve 
miles below, we showed written passes obtained from the 
American consul at Yokohama, for which he charged us 
one dollar each, while the Japanese officials just across the 
street countersigned them without any fee. The hotel — 
occupying, with its grounds beautifully laid out, about four 
acres — was built by a Japanese stock company, not so much 
for a speculation, I imagine, as to confine the foreigners 
who might visit Yeddo. It is situated immediately on the 
bay, next to what is known as " the Concession" — the land 
appropriated to foreigners for purposes of trade. 

On the sea front of the grounds were thirteen flag-staffs, 
in readiness for the flags of as many foreign representatives. 
When the treaty M^as signed, and Japan was opened to for- 
eign trade, it was expected that the foreign merchants 
would come to Yeddo to transact business. A concession 



EXCURSIONS IN JAPAN. 105 

of land on the shore of the bay was made for the erection 
of warehouses, and the hotel was built to confine the for- 
eigners in the same quarter. But Yeddo can not be ap- 
proached by large vessels, and those engaged in the foreign 
trade found that they could do their business better at Yo- 
kohama, and the hotel has consequently been a failure. 
There were only four or five, besides ourselves, staying 
there, and, as a general thing, it is quite empty. It is a 
magnificent building for this country. The rooms, public 
and private, are large and airy, and are quite well furnish- 
ed. The broad piazzas, extending along the entire front of 
about 200 feet, command a fine view of the bay, and from 
the cupola there is an extensive view of the city. An acre 
or more between the hotel and the bay is laid out in Japan- 
ese style — with miniature hills and lawns, and lakes and 
bridges, and ornamented with flowers and trees trimmed in 
fancy shapes. It is a beautiful picture in itself. 

The grounds of the hotel are surrounded by a high wall, 
and in the city front is an arched gateway, along which are 
barracks for the Japanese guards, without whom we were 
not expected to go into the city. Whether they went out 
with us as spies on our purposes or to protect us was to us 
a matter of no consequence, inasmuch as they proved a pro- 
tection from the crowds which every where surrounded us. 

As soon as we had got ourselves and our traps arranged, 
we intimated at the ofiice our desire to take a walk and 
visit a large temple near by. Presently eight men, each 
armed with the inevitable two swords, were ready to attend 
us, one man for each one of our party, and, thus escorted, 
we sallied forth into the street. We had not gone a block 
before a large crowd of men, women, and children began 
to surround us, pressing close to us, especially curious to 
examine the ladies of our party, and to take hold of their 
dresses. It was a very good-natured crowd, and even our 
guards smiled at their curiosity, and said as much by their 
looks as that they were quite harmless. When we reached 
the temple they all cast off their sandals, and rushed in be- 




UELFBY IN OOTJET-YAKD OF TEMPLE. 



JEXCUBSIONS IN JAPAN. 1 Q Y 

fore US to get a better view while we were standing. One 
might suppose we were the first visitors of the sort they 
had ever seen, and that they imagined we had just come 
down from the stars. 

The teix^ples of Yeddo tower above all the other build- 
ings of the city. The houses and shops (and every house 
seems to be a shop) are all of a single story or a story and 
a half, built low, so that they may not have far to fall in 
case of an earthquake, one of the every-day occurrences. 
The temple that we first visited was a structure about fifty 
feet in height, of which the four-sided high roof formed a 
chief part. The architecture was Oriental and really im- 
posing, and the interior far more magnificent and in every 
respect in better taste than I expected to find it fi-om the 
weather-beaten appearance of the exterior. The people of 
the place are not allowed to enter without taking oif their 
sandals, and an exception was made of our party only in 
the case of the ladies ; but this custom seems to arise from 
a regard to cleanliness, and not from reverence, l^o Japan- 
ese ever enters a house or shop without taking off his shoes 
and leaving them at the threshold. 

We had arranged to drive the next morning to Asaxa, a 
distant suburb of Yeddo, which is devoted in a great meas- 
ure to the games and sports of the people, where jugglers 
and experts of all kinds give their performances in the 
open air. There is a celebrated temple in this quarter, 
which we were desirous to visit, but the morning being 
rainy, we were obliged to abandon our purpose, and it was, 
perhaps, well that we did, for there is more lawlessness in 
this quarter of the city than in any other, and we should 
have been more exposed. Some friends whom I after- 
ward met were stopped on their way and advised to return 
on account of exciting demonstrations which were taking 
place on that day. 

In company with the Rev. Mr. Yerbeck, the American 
missionary who was called to the head of the English De- 
partment of the Imperial University, I visited several of the 



108 AROUND THE WORLD. 

book-stores to see and inquire into their literature. The 
Japanese are a reading people. I often found the servants, 
when not on duty, engaged in reading ; and on one occa- 
sion I took the book from the hand of one of. them, and 
found it a profusely illustrated volume. Their reading is 
chiefly sensational novels, arranged after the most approved 
style of French or English fiction — with a pair of lovers, 
who pass. through all sorts of adventures, in which the sun, 
moon, and stars conspire against them, but the lover at 
length, with his heavy sword, cuts through all opposition, 
performing miracles of valor, carrying off his prize, and 
they live and die the happiest of mortals. Their literature 
is not more free from grossness and immorality than that 
of civilized nations. 

The second morning we drove to a high bluff in the 
centre of the aiij called Atangoreama, which is reached by 
a long flight of stone steps, about a hundred in all. "We 
were attended this time by a mounted guard of nine Ya- 
Jconin soldiers, who surrounded our carriage when we rode, 
and dismounted to accompany and protect us whenever we 
had occasion to walk. Every where we attracted the same 
attention and the same crowd. The heights of Atango- 
reama afford the finest view of the city, and overlook the 
castle or palace of the Tycoon, which, since the Tycoonate 
was abolished, is used for the purposes of the new govern- 
ment. The castle stands upon high ground, and is strongly 
fortified after the Japanese fashion, with walled terraces and 
deep, wide moats, making it almost impregnable to native 
attacks, although comparatively weak to those skilled in 
the more modern arts of war. A drive along the castle 
walls and moats is one of the great attractions of Yeddo. 

The city, which stretches out for miles in every direc- 
tion, abounds in beautiful spots and interesting scenes, in 
which Japanese art has combined with nature to produce 
the finest effect. Gen.Yan Yalkenburg, the American min- 
ister, who resided at Yeddo while the foreign legations M'ere 
located at the capital, in speaking to me of its beauties, said 



EXCUESIONS IN JAPAK 109 

one might take a new walk or a new ride every day in the 
year and find some charming scene. We were compelled 
to leave the most of these unseen, but we were advised not 
to fail of visiting the ancient cemetery of the Tycoons, with 
its splendid temples. These sacred grounds must Jiave been 
laid out many centuries ago, and successive nailers have 
spent immense sums in adorning them and keeping them 
in order. The place is called Shiba (pronounced Siba at 
Yeddo and Shiha in the provhices, the precise difference 
between Shibboleth and Sibboleth). It covers a vast ex- 
tent of ground — a hundred or perhaps hundreds of acres, 
we could not tell how many, for there was nothing to 
bound the vision when we were once within the inclosure. 

Entering by a massive gateway, we drove a long distance 
on a broad avenue shaded by magnificent old trees. The 
avenue itself, and the grounds on both sides, ornamented 
with trees and shrubbery, are kept with that scrupulous 
neatness which is characteristic of 'the Japanese. We came 
at length to another arched gateway, where we left our car- 
riages and passed into a square court of some acres, in 
which stands a temple exceeding in grandeur and splendor 
all that we had imagined of Japanese architecture. The 
exterior is heavily ornamented with carving, and the in- 
terior literally shone with burnished gold. 

Leaving this temple, we passed to another part of the 
cemetery, and were conducted through a succession of 
courts and temples not so large as the first, but far more 
elaborately and beautifully ornamented. I was surprised 
by the refined taste in the combinations of colors and in 
the other ornaments with which they were loaded. Some 
of the wide court-yards, inclosing temples, were surrounded 
with porticoes, or loggia, the roofs of which were exqui- 
sitely frescoed with a beauty and modesty of coloring that 
I have never seen surpassed in any country. The panel- 
ing contained carvings of birds in endless variety, painted 
as if from life. 

From Shiba we returned to Yokohama, passing through 



110 ABOUND THE WOBLD. 

the same living and moving museum as on the vray up. It 
was a curious scene, and in passing through it I was often 
reminded of the remark of a gentleman whom I met just 
as we were starting for Yeddo, " You will need a hundred 
eyes to see all that you will meet with on the way." 



JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 



The territory of Japan comprises four large islands and 
nearly 4000 smaller ones. There are seven grand divisions, 
which are subdivided into sixty-eight provinces, and these 
again into smaller districts and towns. It has an area of 
190,000 square miles, and a population of about 20,000,000. 
For the last 600 hundred years there have been both a 
civil and a religious ruler, although the latter was scarcely 
any thing more than a nominal officer. The former, known 
under the name of Taikun or Tycoon, had the reins of 
government in his own hands ; but the Mikado was recog- 
nized as the religious head of the country, and was indeed 
superior in rank to the Tycoon, although he had little to 
do with public affairs, and his existence was almost regard- 
ed as a myth. In the year 1868 a revolution was inaugu- 
!rated, and at length became successful, by which the power 
of the Tycoon was overthrown. He was reduced to the 
position of prince of the empire, the Mikado was duly in- 
stalled as supreme ruler, and is now recognized as such 
throughout the empire. Below him there are 260 Daimios, 
of whom eighteen are the great chiefs of the empire — 
feudal lords with supreme authority in their own provinces, 
and having under them thousands of retainers, the two- 
sworded men of the country, a class who live upon the 
Daimios, supposed to be ready to do their fighting for 
them, and who are sometimes quite as ready to fight on 



JAPA xV AUB THE JAPANESE. 1 1 ]^ 

their own account. Each of the more powerful Daimios 
has many thousands of these retainers, who regard them- 
selves, and are regarded by the rest of the people, as the 
gentry of the country, entitled to live without labor. Be- 
fore the late change in the government the Daimios were 
required to reside at the capital half the year, and to leave 
their families there the whole of the year as hostages or 
pledges of their adherence to and support of the reigning 
power. Their residence, with an immense number of their 
retainers, added greatly to the population of Yeddo. Since 
the change they are allowed to reside in their own prov- 
inces, and Yeddo is now a city of deserted palaces, the pop- 
ulation having been decreased by the removal of the Dai- 
mios and their retinues to the extent of more than half a 
million, some say more than a million. 

The Mikado, who is now^ the supreme and only acknowl- 
edged head of the government, formerly had his palace at 
Miako, the religious capital of the empire ; but since he has 
been acknowledged as emperor, he has taken up his resi- 
dence at Yeddo, or is suj)posed to have done so, for he is 
seldom, if ever, seen by the people, and even the recep- 
tions which he has given to the representatives of foreign 
powers are said to have been given by proxy. Such is 
the mystery thrown by the Japanese officials around every, 
thing pertaining to their government, that it would not be 
strange if the Mikado, in giving audience to foreign em- 
bassadors, had deputed some one to represent him without 
allowing it to be known that he had not appeared in per- 
son. The dujjlicity of Oriental courts, and their utter in- 
comprehensibility are so well known, that scarcely any 
thing of this nature should awaken surprise. All who have 
to deal with them will be taken by surpriae only when they 
shall be found acting on open ground and upon fair prin- 
ciples. 

The present government of Japan gives no promise of 
being stable. The Mikado has been placed in power, not 
by his own ability or energies, but by some of the more in- 



112 AMO UND THE WORLD. 

flnential Daimios, and is now in the hands of a clique who 
will see that he does nothing pi'ejiidicial to their plans and 
interests. Indeed, his authority is merely nominal ; he has 
but the semblance of imperial power, the Daimios being 
supreme within their respective territories. For the sake 
of presenting a united front against foreign nations, and of 
keeping up the traditional forms of royalty before the peo- 
ple, the central organization is maintained ; but it is more 
than ever exposed to revolution, and may speedily fall 
through its own weakness. It has no resources of any 
kind. It is financially bankrupt, and is resorting to every 
temporary expedient to obtain the means of existence. 
Crime of almost any nature may be condoned by the pay- 
ment of sufficient sums. Just before I was in Yeddo, a 
woman was convicted of the murder of her husband, and 
was sentenced to be crucified, but she escaped the cross by 
the payment of a sum amounting to about $1000. 

While I was at Yokohama, an official order, which had 
been sent to the Japanese merchants, was made public, to 
the great disgust of the authorities, who wished to keep it 
secret from foreigners, requiring all native merchants and 
traders, who might receive either cash or checks from for- 
eigners, to present the same to the government officers and 
receive in exchange Japanese money, half hinsats and lialf 
nihoos — tlie former almost worthless paper bonds which 
are irredeemable, and the latter a depreciated coin, and 
one which is counterfeited to an nnlimited extent. The 
object of the order was to enable the government to raise 
funds by substituting poor money for good, and making a 
large percentage ; and also by obtaining the cash for ^ii^- 
eamse pwtnises to pay — a mode of raising the wind which, 
by the way, is not confined to Japan. 

The establishment of any thing like a republican form 
of government, which some have predicted, with the pres- 
ent elements, is out of the question. The only people in 
Japan who are allowed to bear arms, and who, from this 
cause alone, represent the physical force of the nation, are 



JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. \^^ 

the ITakoivins^ numbered by hundreds of thousands, who 
are supported in idleness, and who would be deadly hostile 
to any reorganization of the government, or of society, 
which would degrade them to a level with the common 
people, and make it a necessity for them to obtain a living 
by working for it. The people of Japan can not rise and 
organize for themselves. They have neither the intelli- 
gence, nor the means, nor the disposition to make a dem- 
onstration toward such an end. It appears more probable 
that Japan, for some time to come, will be the scene of suc- 
cessive revolutions; that it will not settle down into any 
thing like stability of government. There is nothing out 
of which to make, or on which to found, such a govern- 
ment as some of its sanguine friends have been predicting. 
There are intelligent men among the higher classes of the 
Japanese — men who have looked into the condition of 
other nations, and who are not wanting in admiration of 
what they see that is good in them — but they are not men 
who are enlightened according to our standard, or who 
would be qualified to lead such a people out of their pres- 
ent condition into that of more enlightened nations. Nor 
would the conflicting interests of so many petty sovereigns 
as Japan contains — with which are closely united the inter- 
ests of so many who are dependent on them — allow of such 
a radical change as the country must undergo before it can 
enjoy the blessings of a free or even of a good government. 
Foreign commerce and foreign intercourse have not 
been a blessing thus far to the Japanese. Foreign com- 
munications and trade have broken in upon the quiet hab- 
its of a people that were living in almost Arcadian sim- 
plicity ; they have excited avaricious and grasping desires 
among those who were content before with moderate re- 
turns for their industry; they have made the cost of liv-. 
ing far greater to the people themselves, and as yet have 
given them little in return that has been a benefit. Much 
must be done in the future to promote the welfare and ad- 
vancement of the people as a compensation for compelling 

H 



114 ABOUND THE WORLD. 

them to open their beautiful islands to the world, and for 
the injury that has been already done, or all this foreign 
intercourse will have proved only a curse. The Christian 
world owes a heavy debt to these heathen nations which 
have suffered so much at the hands of Christian govern- 
ments. 

The Japanese, although far more agreeable in their man- 
ners than the Chinese, are both intellectually and physically 
inferior. They are quicker in apprehension, perhaps ; more 
imitative and more willing to learn from others ; they pos- 
sess, or at least exhibit, more curiosity ; they are decidedly 
ingenious, but are wanting in mental vigor as compared 
with their neighbors. Neither do they have that over- 
weening sense of their importance in the scale of being 
and of superior knowledge which belongs^to the Chinese. 
Their bearing toward each other and toward the outside 
world is regulated accordingly. The government treats 
foreigners, and especially foreign officials, with sufficient 
superciliousness, but the people themselves are open-lieart- 
ed, and exceedingly easy and polite in all their intercourse. 
Take the nation together, they are the most polite and 
graceful of all the people of the East. I should call them 
the Frenchmen of Asia; but this would be doing injustice 
to the Japanese ; for, while the peasantry of France, like 
those of other nations, are often coarse and rude in their 
manners, the Japanese, even in the rural and more retired 
districts, have a grace and even a courtliness of manner, 
and are as polite in their intercourse as those who dwell in 
the cities. I have seen the people meeting in the most 
ordinary circumstances, and bowing with the most pro- 
found respect to each other, as if they were embassadors 
instead of the ordinary working men and women of the 
country. I have wished a hundred times since coming to 
Japan that we could import into our own and some other 
civihzed countries a measure of this " want of ci\ilization," 
or " barbarism," or whatever any one may choose to call it. 

In their houses and shops, and in many of their industrial 



JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 



115 




JAPANESE SALUTING. 



and domestic arrangements, they are patterns of neatness 
and good taste. One may walk for miles through their 
streets, looking into their dwellings or places of business, 
which are all open by day, and he will never tire in his ad- 
miration of the cleanliness which prevails, and of the re- 
o-ard to order and fifeneral effect in the arrano-ement of their 
various wares and varying colors. They are like the shops 
of Paris in this respect. The little gardens attached to 
their dwellings or places of business are gems, and as neat 
as their houses. I have several times seen a house divided 
(without a partition or wall of any kind) between a shop 
and a dwelling ; and while the blacksmith, or carpenter, or 
cooper would be plying his occupation in one half, the 
other, raised but a foot or two, would be covered with mat- 
ting so cleanly that no one would think of stepping on it 
without taking off his shoes. I can not say as much for 
the personal habits of the people ; for, while they bathe reg- 
ularly once or twice a day (men, women, and children 
going through the operation vigorously together in a com- 
' mon bath-house), they put on the same clothes, and wear 
them until they are worn out. 



116 



AROUND THE WORLD. 



The style of dress in Japan is even moro varied than it 
Is on Broadway in New York. It reaches from nothing 
np to an elaborate toilet. The women, I am happy to say, 
never appear in public without some sort of clothing (which 
is more than can be said of the men), and the former show 
that superiority of talent in this department which is char- 
acteristic of the sex 
in other parts of the 
world. A Japanese 
lady thoroughly ar- 
rayed is really an 
elaborate work of art. 
A large amount of 
attention, and no lit- 
tle expense, to begin 
with, is devoted to the 
arrangement of the. 
hair, even the com- 
mon people regular- 
ly employing a hair- 
dresser. If they can 
JM. not afford the luxury 
every day, they will 
make it last for two 
days by sleeping on a 
wooden pillow placed 
under the neck. The 
item of next import- 
ance in a Japanese 
lady's toilet is her ohi, or girdle, which is usually of some 
bright colors, and arranged behind with great care, so as to 
form the camel's hump so popular among other uncivilized 
nations, especially New Yorkers. The Grecian bend is an 
old institution in Japan, and to see one of these dark-skin- 
ned ladies, with her extensive head-dress, a hump upon her 
back, an extremely narrow skirt, high wooden pattens, her 
body thrown forward as she minces her steps, you would 




FEMALE IIAIR-DKESSEB. 



JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 



117 



imagine that she was caricaturing the brainless votaries of 
fashion in other lands ; but she is only dressing as her peo- 
ple have dressed, and walking as they have walked for 
centuries. The ohi serves a purpose in Japan which I have 
not heard attributed to it elsewhere. When a woman be- 
comes a widow, she makes no change unless she wishes to 
announce her purpose never to marry again, in which case 
she ties her obi in front. How effectual it is to ward oft' 
all proposals I do not know ; but, as it is always and every 
where the privilege of a woman to change her mind, it is 
said the girdle occasionally works its way around to its 
normal position behind. 

One of the customs of married life is absolutel}?^ hideous. 
The Japanese generally have fine teeth, but when a woman 
marries she is compelled by the laws of societ}^ to dye her 
teeth black, and this process is renewed every tln-ee or four 
days. In city or country, wherever you go, you meet the 
grim smile of the women who have fallen into the bonds 
of matrimony, and they look more like hybrid monsters, 
mth their black teeth, than like the lovely beings that they 
ought to be. What was the origin of this custom I do not 
know, but there are only two things which have led me to 
desire temporary imperial authority in Japan — one is to es- 
tablish some sort of costume for the men, and the other to 
abolish the custom of married women dyeing their teeth. 

In Japan men shave their heads just where the Chinese 
do not, making a bald spot upon the crown, which likens 
them to Jesuit priests, while they leave a broad circle of 
hair around the head. Men and women shave the eye- 
brows off smooth, and have the hair carefully plucked out 
of the ears and nose. The barber is an important func- 
tionary in this part of the world, every person of high or 
low degree calling his services into requisition almost daily. 
Economically, it might be regarded as a great expense to 
the nation, but, on the other hand, it affords employment 
and support for a large class. 

The shoeing of the Japanese is as simple as are their un- 



118 AROUND THE WORLD. 

derstandiiigs. They are sti'ictly Oriental in their habits in 
this respect, wearing only sandals or pattens in muddy 
weather (which, by the way, is the general rule and not the 
exception in Japan, more than 100 inches of water having 
fallen thus far during the present year, and 125 inches last 
year). The sandals and pattens are held to the foot by a 
cord passing between the first and second toes, so that they 
can be slipped on or off without effort. Some persons al- 
lege that the Japanese are boi'n with a wide space between 
the toes for this very purpose, but it is quite as likely that 
the cord has made or increased the space which is natural 
to every man. They wear no stockings, and yet they seem 
as much afraid as chickens of stepping into the water, 
while their dread of the fluid, except in the form of a reg- 
ular bath, is displayed in the universal habit of carrying an 
umbrella, even when it sprinkles never so little. I have 
seen scores of people, almost entirely naked, walking on 
liigh pattens, with umbrellas spread over their heads, as if 
the rain of heaven or the moisture of the ground would 
prove fatal. 

Many of their habits are the very opposites of those of 
other nations. The carpenter, in using the plane, always 
draws it toward him instead of pushing it. It is the same 
with the saw, which he draws when he wishes to cut, the 
teeth being set accordingly. One of their customs struck 
me as an improvement upon the mode of doing things in 
civilized countries, especially after I had. acquired some 
knowledge of the heels of their vicious ponies. In stabling 
their horses they tie them with the heads to the door oj- 
front of the stable, so that tliey can approach them in front 
instead of behind, thus reducing to every-day practice the 
trick of the showman who made a handsome sum by ad- 
mitthig visitors to see a horse whose head was where his 
tail ought to be. Their horses, by the way, are generall}' 
shod with straw instead of iron. A straw mat is fastened 
upon the foot with cords of the same material, and so 
slightly that the streets in which horses are used, especial- 



JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 



119 



ly the Tokaido, are strewn with the cast-off sandals of the 
ponies. 





JAPANESE UOESE-SIIOE AND SADDLE. 



The Japanese have a great fondness for painting and 
drawing, as almost every article that is mannfactured in 
the country will show. Their books are profusely illus- 
trated, often with plates highly colored, and, excepting that 




GKOUP OF U0R8ES. 



;j[20 AROUND THE WORLD. 

they seem to have no idea of perspective, they excel in po- 
etical representation. Their drawings of animals are in 
the highest degree spirited and graceful, and it is a perfect 
marvel how much they will express by a few simple strokes 
of the pencil. They are, withal, great caricaturists, but in 
their drawings they present rather the humorous than the 
unpleasantly grotesque. 




In some of the arts the Japanese are in advance of all 
other nations. The porcelain of Japan, notwithstanding it 
takes its name from the Celestial Empire, is rarely rivaled 
in China. The lacquer-ware is beyond comparison with 
the productions of any other country. The finest speci- 
mens are rarely exported, being held at prices that strike a 
stranger as enormous. They excel in working in metals, 
especially in bronzes and in all inlaying work. I saw in 
their shops exquisite vases of bronze that were valued at 
$1200 the pair, the work of which could not be equaled in 
Paris, The inlaying of metals, as of steel with gold and 
silver, is carried to the highest perfection, almost making it 



JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 121 

an art peculiar to Japan. In tempering and fashioning 
steel blades the ancient fame of Damascus has been re- 
vived among this simple people. We entertain altogether 
too high an opinion of our modern perfection in art as 
compared with some people whom we have been wont to 
place on the borders of barbarism. 

The beggars in Jaj)an, as in many other countries, form 
a distinct profession, though not so numerous or so impe- 
rious in their demands as in Europe, and their moderation 
and apparent honesty are a model for the beggars of all 
nations. Seeing some forty or fifty coppers hanging on as 
many nails at the front of a shop (the copper coin has a 
hole in the centre), I inquired what they were for, and was 
told they were placed there by the shopkeeper to save time 
and trouble in answering the calls of the mendicants. 
"Wlien one came along he simply took a copper and pass- 
ed on, never abusing the charity of the shopkeej^er by tak- 
ing two. The device by which their calls are attended to 
might be worth imitating in other parts, if equally hon- 
est beggars could be found. 

The people are not without some of the habits of civil- 
ized nations, and drunkenness among others. This is a 
common vice, a cheap form of highly intoxicating liquor 
called saM, distilled from rice, affording the means of get- 
ting drunk at little expense. 

Capital crimes are punished either b}^ decapitation with 
the sword or crucifixion. Several executions by the for- 
mer mode took place while I was in Japan. The latter has 
been common until within a few years, and it is still prac- 
ticed. Each city has its execution-ground, which is often 
upon the high road. We passed those of Yokohama and 
Yeddo in going to the Jatter city. 

Their mode of disposing of the dead is both by burial 
and burning, the wishes of the dying being considered by 
the friends imperative as to the mode in which the body 
shall be disposed of. In some parts of Japan burning is 
always practiced. A large furnace is connected with the 



122 



ASOUND THE WORLD. 



cemetery, in which 
the body is speedily 
consumed, the ashes 
being carefully pre- 
served, and buried 
with as much sacred- 
ness as the entire re- 
mains in other coun- 
tries. Some of the 
cemeteries are very 
beautiful, covering a 
large extent of the 
hill-sides. The large 
cemetery at Nagasa- 
ki, as seen from the 
harbor, presents a 
very striking appear- 
ance, tiers of tombs 
rising one above an- 
other in graceful ter- 
races. 

The Japanese are 
not what we should 
call a religious people. The two prevailing forms of re- 
ligion are Shintooism and Buddhism, but neither of these 
has a strong hold upon the people, or awakens deep re- 
ligious feeling. ISTowhere have I seen the manifestations 
of reverence, or any thing approaching profound worship. 
Even their temples are far from being accounted sacred. 
They are often made places of entertainment and of con- 
tinued residence for strangers. The first Protestant mis- 
sionaries, on coming to Japan, had a temple assigned them 
as their home, and occupied it for a long period. When 
we entered the temples at Yeddo we were invariably fol- 
lowed by a curious crowd, but no one made a sign of pros- 
tration, or engaged in any act of worship, or exhibited any 
respect for the place more than for an ordinary building. 




UtUiAUI^Cr. 



JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 



123 



Sliintooism (called also Sinsyuism) was the ancient faith 
of the country. Its hierarchy consists of the Mikado, two 
ecclesiastical judges, and the priesthood, which comprises 
also the monks. The temples are usually on elevated pla- 
ces, or surrounded with trees (the " high places" and " green 
trees" of idolatry mentioned in the ancient Scriptures). 
They have no idols in the temples ; on the altar stands a 
mirror, which is regarded as an emblem of the purity re- 
quired in the worshipers, and as requiring sincerity of wor- 
ship. The form of worship is simple : first, washing in the 
sacred font ; then praying before the mirror to the great 
Sun-goddess, making an offering of money or rice, or its 
equivalent ; and last, striking the bell, to signify to the god- 
dess that the worship is over. The bells connected with 
the temples are large, and are usually hung near the ground, 
where they can be easily struck. The precepts of the Shin- 
too religion are summed up as follows : 1. Inward purity 
of heart ; 2. Abstinence from whatever makes one impure ; 
3. Observance of the festivals and holy days ; 4. Pilgrim- 
ages to holy places, wliich are often on high mountains. 
The Mikado being the head of this religion, it has become 
the established form since the revolution, and the govern- 
ment has even undertaken a sort of crusade against the 
idols which are in use in other temples and worship. 

Buddhism was introduced in the sixth century, and made 
great progress, running an almost equal race with the old 
form, but it has been greatly modified both as to faith and 
the forms of worship. In Japan, as in China, Buddhism in 
many of its forms of w^orship is strikingly similar to Eo- 
manism, and in looking at the monks or priests in their pro- 
cessional march around the temple, and in listening to their 
monotonous chants, I could almost believe myself in a Ro- 
man Catholic church, 

Confucianism, an im|)ortation fi-om China, is very prev- 
alent, but it scarcely exists as a distinct form of religion. 
It is a sort of fashionable or refined infidelity, rather exert- 
ing a silent influence over the minds of the higher classes 



124 AROUND THE WORLD. 

than having a place as an organized faith or form of wor- 
ship. 

Nominal Christianity in Japan had its origin in the Ro- 
man Catholic missions of the sixteenth century. The tragic 
sequel to its introduction and its spread by the Jesuits is a 
chapter in the history of the country of the deepest interest. 
Like all the propagandism of Rome, the history is as much 
political as religious. Popeiy has ever had more of the 
worldly than of the spiritual element — more love of power 
than of souls, and this was, and still is, manifested in Japan 
as elsewhere. The Jesuits are still at work, and here as 
elsewhere they stir up the hostility of the government 
against them. They are chiefly responsible for the opposi- 
tion of the government to Christianity. One of the most 
interesting and encouraging facts connected with the re- 
ligious prospects of Japan is that the government has in- 
vited nearly every Protestant missionary in the islands to 
enter its service for the education of the young men of the 
country. Immediately after the accomplishment of the 
late revolution, the new government of the Mikado estab- 
lished a department of public instruction, placing at the 
head of the department one of the princes of the empire, 
who ranks with the ministers of Foreign Affairs, of War, 
Finance, etc. An appropriation of 50,000 kokus of rice 
(about $250,000) a year is made to meet the expenses, whicli 
is distributed among several institutions located in different 
cities. The principal college (known as the Reforming or 
Progressive College) is at Yeddo, with 450 pupils, and the 
Rev. Gr. F.Yerbeck, the American missionary, has been call- 
ed to the direction of English instruction, more than half 
the pupils being under his care. He resides at Yeddo, in a 
house provided by the government, has a liberal salary, and 
is provided with a guard of soldiers, who attend him wher- 
ever he goes, in or out of the cit/. Dr. Brown, Dr. Hep- 
burn, and others have been urged to engage in the same 
service. 

Every thing connected with Japan, and especially with 



JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. -[25 

the government, partakes more or less of mystery, and noth- 
ing more than the attitude of the government toward Chris- 
tianity — issuing edicts forbidding the people to embrace it, 
posting these edicts all over the country, and at the same 
time calling into its service, for the education of the youth 
of the higher classes. Christian missionaries who have come 
to the country with the avowed object of laboring for the 
conversion of the Japanese to Christ, and at the same time 
leaving them wholly untramrneled as to what they shall 
teach. But, with all that is mysterious or unfavorable, 
there is much to encourage hope in regard to the future of 
the countr3^ The growing disposition to conform the ad- 
ministration of the government to the American model, 
and to introduce American science and arts ; the increas- 
ing intercourse, official and social, with the United States ; 
the sending of so many youth to be educated in the United 
States under the influence of our Christian institutions, and 
the calling into the public service at home of so many Prot- 
estant Christian teachers, are remarkable signs which, may 
well inspire hope. 



126 



AROUND TEE WORLD. 



■--*=-x-'--- 





VIEW IN TUE IWLAND SEA. 



^III. 



INLAND SEA OF JAPAN. 

The most beautiful sea-voyage in the world is the pas 
sage of the Inland Sea of Japan. Between three of the 
four largest islands — Niphon, Kiusiu, and Sikoke — there is 
an expanse of water five hundred miles in extent from 
east to west, and varying greatly in breadth, connected at 
different points with the ocean, but forming a great land- 
locked sea. The name, like most Japanese names, is singu- 
larly beautiful — Suwonada. Into this wide expanse have 
been sprinkled more than three thousand islands, which, by 
volcanic action, have been moulded into all the forms of 
beauty imaginable. Some of them are lofty cones, rising 
directly from the water to the height of several hundred 
feet. One of these cones I found, by referring to the ship's 
chart as we were passing it, is nine hundred feet high. 
Others are rounded off with more variety of outline, and 
stretch away for miles with constantly changing profiles, 



INLAND SEA OF JAPAN. 12 Y 

and witli shores, and hill-sides, and valleys as green as an 
emerald. I have found nothing to compare with it in any 
other sea, and this is the testimony of every traveler that 
I have met who has made the passage. We were two days 
and one night — a bright, beautiful, moonlight night — in 
steaming through the sea, and, as I recall the voyage, the 
scene rises up before me like the vision of some fairy 
scene. During the whole passage the water had scarcely 
a ripple upon its surface, and an ever-changing panorama 
of green islands, and narrowing straits, and expanding 
bays, and picturesque landscapes, hills and valleys, with 
cities scattered along the shore, rolled by us with constant- 
ly varying beauty. 

This sea lies in the direct route from Yokohama to the 
north of China, whither we were bound. Passengers for 
Hong Kong go by the steamer we had left, which, after 
touching at Yokohama, laj^s its course south of the large 
islands. A corresponding steamer takes the passengers 
who are bound for Shanghai, and passes through the In- 
land Sea, stopping for a day at each of the ports of Hiogo 
and Nagasaki, and so arranging the time of leaving these 
ports as to have the finest parts of the voyage by daylight. 
After we had completed our stay of two weeks at Yokoha- 
ma, we took the steamer Costa Rica, bound for Shanghai. 
Sailing down the Gulf of Yeddo, out into the open sea, we 
coasted for a day along the green shores of Niphon, and 
the second evening entered the Inland Sea by the south, 
the rolling billows at once subsiding and leaving us to en- 
joy a night's repose. Early the next morning we anchored 
in the harbor of Hiogo, one of the open ports, and the most 
beautifully situated town in Japan. Osaka, of which Hi- 
ogo is in reality the port, is fifteen miles distant, and is the 
site of the fortified castle of the Tycoons, destroyed by fire 
when the Tycoon left it in the late revolution. It is a city 
of great wealth, its silk-houses surpassing those of any oth- 
er city of the empire. The morning was rainy, and we did 
not go to Osaka to spend the day, as we had intended; but 



128 



AMOUND THE WORLD. 




ElSTKEINd THE IJSI.A.JSD SEA. 



the clouds soon cleared off, and we went ashore at Hiogo to 
enjoy the hospitality of Colonel Stewart, the United States 
consul, and to make an excursion to a cascade in a cleft far 
up the mountain. Colonel Stewart was occupying the res- 
idence and grounds which formerly belonged to the gov- 
ernor of the place, and it was enough to verify the visions 
of the Arabian Nights just to enter the grounds. It is in 
the heart of the Japanese town, but so arranged that, on en- 
tering the gate, ^'■Presto., agramento, change,^'' and you find 
3^ourself apparently a thousand miles fi'om any other habi- 
tation, in some new creation. Bamboo and plantain groves 
surround you; a lotus pond, covered with magnificent 
leaves, and alive with large goldfish ; grottoes and shaded 
walks invite you to forget the outer world, which is ex- 
cluded by a high wall and by dense shade. 

Leaving this beautiful spot, we mounted the horses and 
made the ascent of the mountain, having a view not only 
of the falls, but of the extended rice plains before us, of 
the magnificent harbor, and of Osaka, with the fine sur- 
rounding country in the distance. Hiogo gives promise of 
becoming an important place in the commerce of Japan. 
It certainly has great attractions as a residence. 



INLAND SEA OF JAPAN. ;1^29 

At four o'clock the next morning the ship's gun resound- 
ed through the harbor, reverberating among the mountains 
which overlook the town, and at five we weighed anchor 
and were soon steaming through the beautiful sea. All 
day long our course lay through islands succeeding islands, 
all of which seemed as smooth as if shapen by hand, round- 
ed off or carved in graceful shapes, and clothed with the 
velvety green of Japan, making the passage one of un- 
broken beauty. In the afternoon we sailed along a shore 
on which the Tokaido — the imperial highway — lined with 
double rows of trees, wound along, over hill and dale, as 
far as the eye could reach. The day was clear and calm, 
and as it drew near its close the sun poured a flood of 
rosy and purple light over islands and sea — such a light as 
painters put upon canvas when they are thought to exag- 
gerate. The evening, with a bright moon, was equally 
beautiful, but we had to fill out the landscapes in imagina- 
tion, and when we retired we had passed again into the 
open sea. 

We rose next morning at six, in time to see the gates of 
the East opened, the same flood of purple light pouring 
over the mountains as we were entering the Straits of 
Simoni-saki, the most beautiful passage of the two days' 
sail. Islands, with charming little bays, were around us, 
the country under more perfect cultivation than any por- 
tion of the coast that we had seen, the terraces running far 
up the hill-sides, and trees and shrubbery indicating the 
taste of the inhabitants. On either side of this strait was 
a large city, well fortified. Two war-steamers, oflEicered, 
engineered, and manned by Japanese, lay at anchor in the 
harbor, while great numbers of sailing vessels were bound 
hither and thither. All that day we had the same calm 
sea and fine weather, with the constantly-shifting panorama 
of islands, many of them not more' than an acre in extent, 
but stretching themselves up in all sorts of beautiful shapes. 
The shores were so bold that a vessel can almost sail along 
and touch the sides without touching bottom. The Inland 

I 



130 



AROUND THE WORLD. 



Sea of Japan is said, I know not on what authority, to 
have the deepest soundings of any w^ater on the globe. 
Just at dusk we came upon the arched rock, a small island 
jutting out from the sea, united at the top, but with a wide 
arch some thirty or forty feet in height, under which boats 
can sail with ease. As the last rays of daylight were van- 
ishing, we entered the harbor of Nagasaki, on the extreme 
west of Japan, which is completely concealed from the sea, 
running back around high headlands. At the mouth of 
the harbor lies an island called by the Japanese Takaboko, 
and by the Dutch Pappenberg, which has a melancholy 




PAPPENBEKG ISLAND. 



history. At the close of the sixteenth century, when the 
introduction of Christianity by the Jesuits excited the ap- 
prehension of the Japanese government, and the order was 
given to exterminate the foreign religion by a bloody per- 
secution, many thousands of Christians fled to this island 
for a last refuge. They were pursued by tlie authorities. 



INLAND SEA OF JAPAN. 



131 



and those who escaped the sword were driven into the sea 
and perished in the waters. The precipice over which 
they were driven is still pointed out. These were the mar- 
tyrs who were recently canonized, en masse, at Rome, whose 
fate forms one of the fearful chapters of Japanese history. 

Our ship lay for two nights and a day in the harbor of 
Nagasaki, affording us an opportunity to visit the town, and 
to enjoy the beautiful scenery; which, were it not on such a 
limited scale, would rival the grandeur of Hiogo. The 
harbor, and the mountains which inclose it on all sides save 
the narrow entrance, form a perfect amphitheatre, the sides 
rising gradually, and, as it were, by tiers of seats or steps, 
to a great height, the beauty of the sight being diversified 
by the Japanese town, the foreign settlement, the temples, 
and other edifices. Notwithstanding the multiplied charm- 
ing features of the scene, we fancied that those who contin- 
ued to reside here must, ere long, feel secluded from the 
rest of the world by the very walls of green which, to a 
stranger, are so lovely. 

About midnight the last night of our stay, I heard a 
whistling in the rigging of our ship, which assured me that 
the calm we had enjoyed for so many days preceded, if it 
did not presage, a storm ; and I was not disappointed. Soon 
after daylight we steamed out of the quiet and well-pro- 
tected harbor into the Eastern China Sea, only to meet the 
northeast monsoon, which for eighteen hours blew with 
fearful violence. Our ship was not a small one (some 2000 
tons), but she was tossed upon the uneasy sea as a thing of 
no account. We prepared ourselves as well as we could 
to withstand the blast, but we could not long keep the 
deck, and were forced to go below. The ladies were com- 
pelled to take their berths, and even there they were not 
safe. One of them, for whom I can testify, by a lurch of 
the ship, which threatened to roll entirely over, was tossed 
from her berth to the opposite side of a wide state-room, 
when I sent for the ship's carpenter and had her boarded 
up to prevent her being dashed to pieces. At short inter- 



232 AROUND THE WOBLD. 

vals, all day long, one crash after another was heard as a 
table broke loose or the steward's crockery' went into a 
heap. I was lying on the locker in the main cabin when 
a heavy swell tossed the ship upon her side, throwing the 
large marble slab of the heater from its fastenings. It 
struck near me on the floor, and was dashed into a dozen 
pieces. Though in a stanch and mighty ship, we felt, as 
we had not had occasion to feel before, how weak are the 
proudest works of man in contending with the breath of 
the Almighty. We conld only commit ourselves to His 
care during the long, dark night, while the tempest raged 
and the great waves tossed us up and down. With the 
morning came a change. Early in the day we entered 
the broad mouth of the Yanktse-kiang Kiver, and quietly 
steamed toward Shanghai, thankful that we had reached 
another continent in safety, and that for a little while our 
tossings upon the deep were over. A more perfect contrast 
than our experience upon the Inland Sea of Japan and that 
upon the Eastern China Sea could not well be imagined. 



IX. 

SHANGHAI TO HONG KONG. 



We entered the Yanktse Kiver, as the Amazon is cross- 
ed, far out at sea. Long before we were in sight of the 
low shores the water became as yellow as that of the Tiber, 
taking its color from the soil of the country, which is con- 
stantly washing down the river, filling up the wide mouth, 
and making the navigation more and more difficult. One 
shore only was visible at first, and then the low sand-banks 
of the opposite shore appeared, but nowhere was any eleva- 
tion in sight. The whole region is upon a level with the 
sea, and is protected against an occasional overflow by em- 
bankments. The country far up the Yanktse was under 



SHANGHAI TO HONG KONG. 



133 



water, the river spreading itself out in immense lakes. 
Thousands of lives had been lost by drowning, and by the 
loss of food which such a calamity always occasions in this 
densely populated country. 

We soon entered the Woosung, a small river on which 
Shanghai is situated, about twelve miles from its mouth. 
At the entrance is a long range of earthworks — one of the 
supposed impregnable forts which the Chinese, in their 
self-suiRciency and contempt of foreigners, erected at vari- 
ous points, and which have proved equally efficient with 
the paper fortifications recommended in Salmagundi. They 
were easily battered to pieces by the English fleet in the 
war of 1841. Near these fortifications was a large fleet of 
Chinese war-junks, built, doubtless, after the model that 
was most approved a thousand years ago. The prow of 
each vessel was provided with two large eyes, one on each 
side, to enable the ship to see its course in a dark night. 
Without these eyes a vessel is considered as unsafe as a 
blind man walking the streets of a strange city. The ves- 
sels have great high poops, ornamented with carvings and 




CHINESE TKADING JUNK. 



134 ABOUND THE WORLD. 

other fixtures, making them a curiosity to a stranger just 
coming into the empire. The junk which visited the har- ' 
bor of New York many years ago was a fair type of the 
swarms which fill the rivers of China, although not so high- 
ly ornamented as many I have seen. These junks are no 
mean sea-boats. They are exceedingly clumsy looking 
above water, but their keels are often beautiful models, 
and they ride out a storm in safety when many a fine yacht 
would go down. 

Shanghai is one of the four ports first opened by the 
treaty of 1842. It was little visited by foreigners previous 
to that time, but, being admirably situated to secure the 
commerce of the great valley of the Yanktse and of the 
whole of the north of Cliina, it sprang at once into impor- 
tance, and has become the chief foreign commercial city of 
the empire. Canton has lost its former pre-eminence, and 
Hong Kong alone rivals this city of the north. The old 
Chinese city of Shanghai, which is near the foreign settle- 
ment, one of the large towns of China, is inclosed within 
a high wall, which in the growth of the place proved insuf- 
ficient to contain the population, and they have spread 
themselves over the surrounding plain. It was captured 
by the Taeping rebels in 1853, and held until 1855, when 
they retreated from this part of the country. During sev- 
eral subsequent years, while the rebels were overrunning 
the surrounding region, there was a large influx of people, 
who came to this city for protection and residence, and it 
enjoyed great prosperity in consequence. Foreigners who 
held the land in the vicinity of the new town made im- 
mense fortunes on paper ; but after the rebellion was quell- 
ed, and the Chinese who had come to Shanghai returned 
to their homes, a great and disastrous revolution occurred, 
and the fortunes which had been made in haste vanished 
still more rapidly. The city has not entirely recovered 
from this shock, and, in common with the other poi'ts, it is 
suffering from the general depression of the China trade. 

The foreign settlement makes a fine appearance as we 



SHANGHAI TO HONG KONG. 135 

approach it by water. It stretches along the river nearly 
two miles, being divided into what are called the American, 
Eno-lish, and French settlements, the two former being un- 
der one municipality, and the latter under French rule. A 
wide " bund" or quay, which serves equally as a place of 
commerce, promenade, and drive, occupies the river front, 
the finest buildings of the city— the hongs of merchants 
and public buildings— being situated on the bund, and 
giving a very imposing appearance to the place. Several 
streets run back from the river, and contain numerous fine 
residences and business houses. The climate is very trying 
in winter. The malaria of the low country was formerly 
productive of fevers, but at great expense a system of drain- 
age and of street construction was carried out, by which the 
health of the place has been improved. The" cost of these 
improvements was so great that the Chinese say Shanghai 
is paved with dollars. 

The first thing that arrests a traveler's attention on land- 
ing is the novel mode of conveyance peculiar to Shanghai. 
The popular carriage is a wheelbarrow. The streets of the 
old city are narrow and rough, and so much broken up by 
bridges that this vehicle can not be used ; but in the foreign 
settlement you find the Chinese men and women every 
where riding on wheelbarrows. The wheel is much larger 
than those in use in our country, and the passengers are 
seated one on each side of it. When two are riding, if 
they are of equal weight, the carriage is evenly balanced ; 
but when two persons of unequal weight are carried, or 
only one, the wheel is turned Up at an angle, so that the 
weight shall come upon the point in its circumference that 
strikes the ground. This, I think, must be a modern inven- 
tion or adaptation, for no real Chinese city that 1 have seen 
will admit of its being used, and the roads leading into the 
country are not favorable for such a mode of conveyance, 
especially in wet weather. 

The Chinese part of the town has a population of nearly 
a million, including that portion built around the walls for 



136 ABOUND THE WOBLD. 

want of room within. During the rebellion the number 
was almost twice as great. The city proper is entered by 
several gates, which are narrow passages, admitting only 
what goes on foot. Every thing in the shape of merchan- 
dise, and every stone and timber for building, is carried in 
on the shoulders of coolies, as in most parts of the East. 
The burdens which these coolies carry suspended between 
them by a bamboo pole are sometimes enormous, but they 
stand up manfully under them, and shout continually as 
they go through the throng to those ahead to make way for 
them. All classes in the crowded city show the utmost 
consideration for each other. The streets of the city are 
never more than six or seven feet wide, and yet through 
these narrow passages a crowd is constantly surging, with- 
out ever coming in contact or interfering with each other's 
burden or business. 

The city within the walls is exceedingly filthy, so much 
so that I "would not think of taking a lady into it, not even 
in a sedan chair, the ordinary mode of conveyance for for- 
eigners ; for, although she might be protected from coming 
in contact with its filth, few have the strength of constitu- 
tion to endure the smells of the place. I have more than 
once tested the " two-and-seventy stenches" in the streets of 
Cologne which Coleridge enumerates, but they are outnum- 
bered and overpowered in the streets of almost any Chinese 
city. The little canals which run through the town are the 
most disgusting of all, and it is a mystery how human be- 
ings can swarm in such a place and human life continue. 
I should imagine that the heat of every summer would 
bring a pestilence, and the place be depopulated. But the 
Chinese not only live, they multiply and thrive amid these 
elements of disease and death. 

One will not be inclined to linger long in his walks 
through the native city, although he may see much at any 
step that is both novel and interesting. The Chinese cos- 
tumes, the Chinese shops, the Chinese sights and smells of 
all kinds, are perfectly new, and the most of them, as he 



SHANGHAI TO HONG KONG. 



137 



has never met with them before, he will never wish to meet 
again. 

At several points as I was passing along I came upon 
police-stations, where criminals of different .grades were 
undergoing different degrees of punishment. Some were 
simply confined in large cages, the sport of the passers-by. 
Others wore immense collars made of two wide boards 
brought together at their edges, with a hole large enough 
for the neck. The collar is so wide that the prisoner can 
not reach his head with his hands, and is dependent upon 
his friends or upon charity not only for his food, but for 
getting it to his mouth. 
Others had their heads jut- 
ting out of the tops of cages 
which were so high that 
they could not sit down, and 
so low that they could not 
stand up, or in which they 
stood on tip-toe, and they 
were condemned to pass 
days and nights in this un- 
comfortable and even tor- 
turing position. 

A short time before, sev- 
eral criminals who had been 
guilty of a capital offense 
were condemned to death, 
and placed in these cages, 
where they died from starv- 
ation before the eyes of the 
people, no one being al- 
lowed to furnish them with food. Torture, as I subse- 
quently learned by witnessing it at Canton, enters largely 
into the idea of punishment among the Chinese, and is 
freely resorted to for the purpose of extorting confession 
from the accused. 

There is very little to detain an ordinary traveler in 




OIIINEBE PUNISHMENT. 



]^38 AROUND THE WORLD. 

Shanghai. Its sights, if there are any, are soon seen. No 
one will wish to make more than a passing visit to the Chi- 
nese city, and the foreign part derives its only importance 
from its commerce. The town was all agog while I was 
there with the visit of the Duke of Edinburg, Prince Al- 
fred of England. One of the entertainments was an inter- 
national boat-race between four-oared boats — American, 
Enghsh, Scotch, and German. It was no little gratification 
to ns, as Americans, to join in the rousing cheers which 
welcomed the Stars and Stripes as they came in four 
lengths ahead of all competitors, and our pleasure was all 
the more enhanced by the fact that the victors were friends 
whose hospitalities we were enjoying at the house of Oli- 
phant & Co. 

It was too late in the season to visit Pekin and the great 
wall of China. We were advised not to undertake the 
journey, as we might be frozen up, which would make a 
complete derangement of our plans of travel for the year 
to come. "We regretted not being able to reach the cap- 
ital of the Flowery Kingdom, but it is just as well to see 
a few Chinese cities as many. With the exception of Pe- 
kin, they are all built pretty mnch after the same unin- 
teresting model, the chief difference consisting in the de- 
grees of filth. There is less of the beautiful in scenerj^ 
in the country at large than in almost any country I have 
visited. 

Before reaching Shanghai we had thought seriously of 
going np the Yanktse-kiang River as far as Kang-kow, six 
hundred miles, and we found splendid American-built 
steamers, with luxurious accommodations, making regular 
trips. But there is little to be seen. The countiy, the 
whole distance, is flat and uninteresting, and much of it at 
that time was overflowed with water. 

Nankin, which has always been famous in the geograph- 
ical, if not the historical records of China, is about two 
hundred miles above Shanghai, but we were assured that 
we should have great difficulty in landing and reaching 



SHANGHAI TO HONG KONG. 



139 



the city, and that when we got there we should find it a 
heap of ruins, very much as it was left by the Taeping 
rebels. Not a tile of the famous Porcelain Tower re- 
mains excepting those which are manufactured for sale as 
relics. Many of the great cities of the empire were al- 
most wholly destroyed during the rebellion. When the 
rebel army occupied a town they used it for fuel, the coun- 
try generally being destitute of timber, and in this way 
the light wooden houses disappeared, as by a general con- 
flagration, in the hands of such an immense host. Some 
of the cities are rebuilt, but others remain a desolation. 




CHINESE TEMPLE. 



To any traveler who is not able to devote much time to 
this country, I would recommend a trip from Shanghai to 
Mngpo, a hundred miles distant, which is reached daily or 
nightly by steamer, and then to Hang-chow, farther in the 



140 AROUND THE WORLD. 

interior, whicli will afford an opportunity of seeing some 
of the finest scenery in tliis part of China, and of visiting 
two of its most interesting cities. He can then take the 
steamer down the coast, either stopping at Foo-chow and 
Amoy, or going directly to Hong Kong and Canton. The 
approaches to Foo-chow up the River Min, on which it is 
situated, are very picturesque, but the city itself has the 
reputation of being the filthiest in the empire. 

Finding the Suwonada, the swiftest and finest steamer 
on the coast, ready to leave for Flong Kong, and having 
an invalid in my company, I took passage for Hong Kong 
direct, intending to return to Amoy. We found the Suwo- 
nada every thing that could be desired in navigating this 
turbulent China Sea, excepting that she would never lie 
still, and when afioat, so tempestuous did we always find 
these waters that I almost fancied the rocky islands, if not 
the continent itself, must be tossing up and down with the 
waves. The commander of the ship. Captain Clark, is a 
graduate of Harvard College, a thorough seaman, and a 
perfect gentleman. Another pleasure in sailing in her 
was that she floated the Stars and Stripes — ever a wel- 
come sight, and most so when farthest from home. 

We reached Hong Kong, 820 miles, at the end of the 
third day. Hong Kong is an island about twenty -five 
miles in circumference, an English possession, taken as in- 
demnity in one of the wars, and ceded to Great Britain in 
1841, from which time it grew rapidly in commercial im- 
portance, until its rival, Shanghai, diverted a large part of 
the China trade. Victoria is the name of the town, al- 
though abroad it is almost invariably spoken of as Hong 
Kong. It is still one of the two chief foreign cities on the 
coast, and is visited, probably, by more ships than any oth- 
er. It is a sort of posting station for the whole Eastern 
world, ships without, cargo and ships without orders com- 
ing here to await orders from their owners. Having an 
English governor, and all the paraphernalia of an English 
colony, it is a place of no little court ceremony, and the 



SHANGHAI TO HONG KONG. 



141 



social distinctions whicli attach even to the most petty 
governmental dependencies of Great Britain are peculiar- 
ly rife. 





HONG KONd. 



There is scarcely a level acre upon the whole island. 
Indeed, the only spot that I remember to have seen is a 
charming little valley about a mile from the town, which 
has been appropriated to a race-course — the several cem- 
eteries, English, Roman Catholic, and Parsee, occupying 
the rising ground around the race-course, and forming a 
very incongruous combination of grave-yards and sport- 
ing-grounds. This beautiful spot is called Happy Yalley : 
whether named before its present occupation, or for what 
one of these different purposes it was first occupied, I have 
not learned. The island is made up of lofty peaks, one 
of which, Yictoria Peak, overhanging the town, and from 
which you could almost throw a stone into the streets, is 
1825 feet high. The view from the peak is as perfect a 
panorama as that from the Pighi ; and although by no 
means so extensive nor in any measure so magnificent, 



142 AROUND THE WOULD. 

wanting the elements of grandeur whicli abound among 
the Alps, yet it is a splendid view. We ascended in sedan 
chairs, each chair carried by four coolies, and, walking and 
riding by turns, were an hour and five minutes in reaching 
the summit. The view of the town below ; of the harbor 
with its. shipping, looking like miniature craft; of the sur- 
rounding waters and islands, abundantly repays for the ex- 
ertion and expense. The city is built along the harbor, in 
terraces rising one above another, until the upper tier is 
some three or four hundred feet in height. The govern- 
or's residence is a fine mansion, with large and well-kept 
grounds. Many of the hongs of the merchants are pal- 
aces, and the public buildings would do honor to any city. 
The City Hall, just completed and inaugurated by Prince 
Alfi-ed, who arrived two or three days after we reached 
Hong Kong, is a splendid structure situated on the bund. 

The governor has established a system of schools of dif- 
ferent grades for the Chinese, who compose by far the 
largest part of the population, and it is well administered. 
At the invitation of a member of the governor's council, 
I spent a morning in the high school, and witnessed, with 
great interest and pleasure, the evidences given, by an ex- 
tempore examination, of the progress made by the more 
advanced Chinese, not only in the elements of an English 
education, but in the sciences. I saw and heard enough 
to satisfy me that the excuse given for the universal cus- 
tom among foreign residents of talking with the Chinese 
in the miserable " Pigeon" English, namely, that there are 
many vocal sounds in English which they can not utter, is 
without foundation. There is not a letter or combination 
which these youth had not mastered, although, of course, 
with some foreign accent. The Pigeon English is a mon- 
grel dialect, probably first invented by the Chinese as a 
substitute for English, very much as young children in- 
vent a language for themselves before learning to speak in 
the dialect of older persons. It has been perpetuated by 
foreigners for the sake of holding conversation with the 



SSANOHAI TO BONO KONG. I43 

Chinese who have adopted it. Pigeon is said to be the 
nearest approximation that the Chinese make to the word 
business ,• hence Pigeon English means business English. 
It is an unnecessary accommodation to the natives, who 
are just as able as other nations to acquire the sounds of 
our language. 

The following version of " My name is Korval" is a fair 
specimen of the Pigeon English. It needs a glossary al- 
most as much as real Chinese. 

My name b'long Norbal, topside that Glampian hillee 

My fader, you sabee my fader, makee pay chow-chow he sheepoo 

He smallo heartee man, too muchee take care that doUoo, gola? 

So fashion he wantchee keepee my, connta one piecee chilo, stop he own 

side. 
My no wantchee, wantchee long that largee mandah, go knockee alia man : 
Littee teem, Joss pay my what thing my fader no likee pay. 
That moom last nightee teem get up loune, alia same my hat, 
No got full up, no got square ; plenty piecie 
That lobbel man, too muchee qui-si, alia same that tiger. 
Chop-chop come down side that hillee, catchie that sheepoo, long that cow ; 
That man, custom take care, too muchee quick lun way. 
My one piecie owne spie eye, look see that lallee-loon man what side he 

walkee. 
Hi-yah ! No good chancie, findie he, lun catchie my flen : 
Two piecie loon-choon lun catchie that lobbel man ! he 
No can walkee welly quick, he pocket too muchee full up. 
So fashion knockee he largee. 

He head man no got shutte far 
My knockie he head. Hi-yah ! My No. 1 stlong man. 
Catchie he jacket, long he t'lousa, gola : You likee look see ? 
My go puttee on just now. My go home, largie heart just now 
My no likee take care that sheepoo. So fashion my hear you hab got fightee 

this side 
My take one piecee coolie, come you countlee, come helpie you. 
He heart all same cow, too muchie fear, lun away. 
Masquie, Joss take care pay my come you housee. 

I visited the Colonial Prison, where more than four hun- 
dred criminals of all nations were confined, and have never 
seen a penitentiary more neatly kept, or apparently under 
better management. Among the prisoners were several 
Chinese women who had been convicted of child-stealing, 
a very common crime. The boys are stolen and sold for 
boatmen, and the girls either for boat-hands or for the broth- 
els, to be educated for a life of infamy. I inquired of the 
superintendent if any form of oath was administered to 



144 ABOUND THE WORLD. 

the Chinese when they were called to testify in the courts, 
and was informed that none was used in cases of small im- 
portance, but that in graver cases they swore by a cock's 
liead. The cock is taken to a joss-house or temple, the 
head cut off with some ceremony, and on this, as the basis 
of the most solemn oath that is administered, a Chinaman 
gives his testimony in an English court. 

I can not refrain from copying just here the beautiful 
motto, which every one will recognize as taken from the 
book of sacred wisdom, and which I found engraved on 
the stone arch in front of the post-office at Hong Kong, 
than which nothing could be more appropriate in this dis- 
tant part of the world : " As cold waters to a thirsty soul, 
so is good news from a far country." 



X. 

CANTON AND ITS SIGHTS. 



It is not long since Canton was all of China to the out- 
side world. For two centuries before the opening of the 
treaty ports it was the only city at which any amount of 
foreign commerce was carried on. The East India Com- 
pany established a factory (the name for a place of busi- 
ness) at this point as early as 1689, and the representatives 
of various countries followed their example ; planted them- 
selves alongside the city and carried on traffic with the peo- 
ple, without being permitted to enter the city itself. The 
foreign factories, so celebrated in Eastern commerce, occu- 
pied a wide space along the river, just under the walls of 
the city, and to this space all " outside barbarians" were 
limited, and within it they were, at one time, actually con- 
fined as prisoners, living in no little terror of their lives. 
It is only within the last twenty-five or thirty years that 
the gates of the city have been opened to foreigners. So 



CANTON AND ITS SIGHTS. I45 

recently as 1856, the Chinese, becoming exasperated against 
all foreigners, in the incipiency of one of the wars, attack- 
ed the factories, pillaged and burnt them, making the once 
beautiful collection of palaces a mere heap of ruins. The 
whole city was soon after taken possession of by the Brit- 
ish army and held for several years, since which time the 
gates have been open to all from every country who choose 
to enter. 

Canton is situated on the Pearl River, ninety miles fi^om 
Hong Kong, which is now the port of Canton, for scarcely 
a vessel goes up the river. The business of the place and 
the foreign commerce is nearly all transacted at Hong 
Kong. An American river steamer leaves the latter place 
every morning at eight o'clock, and another returns each 
day at the same hour. The first half of the distance, in 
going up, is through a wide bay interspersed with islands, 
but with nothing striking in its scenery. 

At length we reach what are called the Bogue forts, fa- 
mous in the China wars. They are extensive fortifica- 
tions, and by the Chinese were considered impregnable, 
and a perfect protection against all vessels that might at- 
tempt to pass up the river. But they stood no chance be- 
fore the guns of the British fleet, and are now extensive 
lines of ruined fortifications. They form a picturesque 
feature of the landscape, as we pass between them through 
the Tiger's Mouth (Boca Tigre), from which the forts took 
their name. 

At this point commences all that is attractive on the voy- 
age up. The banks of the Pearl River are flat, but they 
are in a high state of cultivation, covered with rice-fields 
and plantations of bananas, which were looking green and 
fresh, and added much to the beauty of the shores. Far- 
ther inland were rows of lychen - trees, and occasionally 
clusters of a species of the banian, which is common in 
this part of China. Numerous villages could be seen at a 
distance from the shore, the piratical tendencies of the Chi- 
nese forbidding the people to build near the water, except 

K 



146 



AROUND THE WORLD. 



in large and walled cities. In every village one or more 
large square stone buildings towered up far above all the 
ordinary houses, which are only one story in height. These 
buildings, a striking feature in all southern Chinese towns, 
are pawnbrokers' establishments, and are also used as places 
of deposit for valuable articles that are not in constant use. 
The owners of these establishments become responsible for 
the safe keeping of all goods and valuables intrusted to 
them, the people having generally no safe place in which 
to keep them at home. Scores of these square towers may 
be seen looming up above the rest of the city all over Can- 
ton. Now and then we came upon a five or seven-story 
tower, a prominent feature in the scene, which afforded us 




CHINESE PAGODA. 



CANTON AND ITS SIGHTS. I4.7 

our first view of the Chinese pagodas. They are usually 
fast going to decay, and most of them are considered too 
insecure to be ascended. 

Twelve miles below Canton we reached Whampoa, once 
a place of some commercial importance, and soon after 
came upon the outskirts of the wilderness of boats which 
forms one of the most remarkable sights of the great city. 
It is estimated that 300,000 of the people belonging to 
Canton live on the water in boats, not merely to obtain a 
livelihood from the water, but chiefly for the sake of a resi- 
dence. The people are born, spend their days, and die in 
these boats, the only homes and the only shelter that they 
have from the time of their birth until they are committed 
to the grave, and yet a happier-looking class of people 1 
have not seen any where in China. One morning I saw 
under my window, which was on the shore, a family of ten 
persons — father, mother, and eight young children — taking 
their breakfast of rice, and fish, and a few gre,ens in one end 
of their boat, and apparently as well contented as if they 
owned a palace. These boats are of all sizes and of all 
sorts, the most of them small sampans, about the size of an 
ordinary row-boat, with a simple mat or bamboo covering 
over one half, while others are large and elaborately orna- 
mented with carvings in wood, and gold and paint. Some 
of them are occupied as restaurants and places of amuse- 
ment, the large boats being usually moored alongside of 
each other, with long water-streets running between the 
blocks. Besides these there are innumerable craft, junks 
of all sizes, sailing or rowing up and down and across the 
river, making it exceedingly difficult at times to find an 
opening through which to steer a boat. The men who live 
on the boats go ashore for emploj^ment during the day, and 
the women ply the oars, and capital boatmen they are. I 
give them a decided preference over men, f-or they are not 
only equally handy with the oar or the scull, but they are 
far more polite, and, I may add, more honest than their 
other halves who are on shore at work during the day. 



148 AROUND THE WORLD. 

One would imagine that a boat must be a dangerous 
place to bring up a family of chikben, but the mothers tie 
a joint of bamboo to each of their little ones, and if they 
tumble overboard it serves as a float, and they are recover- 
ed. They do not grieve much if the child never turns up, 
especially if it be a girl. 

There have been some fearful scenes among this floating 
population. The typhoons which sweep over the China 
Seas and along the coast, and which are so destructive to 
shipping, seldom come so far inland as Canton, biit four or 
five years since one of the most severe ever known passed 
over the city, and it is comparatively easy to imagine the 
havoc made with these floating homes of the poorer people, 
but impossible to describe, or even to conceive, the scenes 
which followed. This wilderness of river craft, which at 
ordinary times is so quiet, and only sways hither and thith- 
er with the tide, was like a heap of chaff before the tem- 
pest. The honse-boats, many of which were of large size, 
became as dust to the wind, and were carried away no 
one knew where ; the heavier boats were sunk in great 
numbers, the occupants were hurled into the water as their 
homes were torn to pieces, and when the storm had passed, 
and an estimate could be made of the loss of life, it was 
found that 60,000 persons had perished. For a long time 
the river was strewn with the dead bodies. 

Just before reaching the city we came upon a small isl- 
and fortified in the Chinese style, and having a picturesque 
appearance. 

Canton is regarded as the first city in the empire for 
wealth and elegance. It is the best built, and, what is no 
mean praise for a Chinese city, it is the cleanest. There is 
no external magnificence in any of the buildings. The 
houses, generally combining both shop and residence, are 
usually of one story, never more than two, and there is 
scarcely such a thing to be imagined here as architectural 
taste. It would be wasted if there were such an element 
in the composition of the people, for the city, like all oth- 



CANTON AND ITS SIGHTS. 



149 



ers, is so compact that nothing could be seen to advantage. 
Many of the streets are covered with matting to shut out 
the rays of the sun, giving them a sombre, indoor appear- 
ance. Indeed, when one enters the gates of this or any 
other city that I have seen in China, he bids adieu to the 
outer world, and even to the heavens, and wanders on in a 
shaded labyrinth until he leaves the city itself. 




FOET NEAE CANTON. 



There are no prominent buildings, with the exception of 
the pawnbrokers' towers ; even the temples are low, scarce- 
ly rising above the surrounding houses, and altogether the 
view of the town from without has nothing that is striking 
or interesting. There is one beautiful spot, but not a part 
of Canton. When the occupation of the city by the foreign 
powers was given up in 1861, the old factory site was a 



150 



AROUXD THE WORLD. 



desolation. In place of this, a low, sandy island, directly 
on the river bank half a mile higher up, was appropriated 
to foreigners, and at great expense was raised some ten or 
twelve feet above high-water mark, and surrounded by a 
granite wall of hewn stone. The lots were then sold, and 
the foreign residences and hongs built upon it. It is now 
a small city of palaces, and forms the only beautiful feat- 
ure in the view of Canton as one passes it by the river. 
There are three longitudinal and several cross streets set 
with trees, the compounds being ornamented with plan- 
tains, shrubbery, and flowers, a public garden or square 
adding to the attractions of the place. The island is called 
Shah-Min. It is connected with the city by an iron bridge 
100 feet long, which no Chinese is allowed to cross. 

In enumerating the sights of Canton I should begin with 
the streets themselves, which, notwithstanding their con- 
tracted dimensions and great irregularity, are as varying 
and entertaining in their aspect as a kaleidoscope. They 
are never more than eight or ten feet wide ; not a street in 
the city will admit of the passage of any kind of wheeled 
carriage, the only' mode of conveyance for passengers being 
the sedan chair, which is carried on the shoulders of coolies, 




i:ciC^;^E_-_^ 



SEDAN CHAIE. 



suspended on poles. All merchandise and every thing else 
is carried by coolies in the same way. 

The streets do not answer to their high-sounding names 
such as " Pure Pearl Street" (not referring to the perfumes 
that abound more or less every where), " Street of Benevo- 



CANTON AND ITS SIGHTS. 



151 



ience and Love," " Coucliant Dragon Street," " Court of 
Unblemished Rectitude," etc. ; but some of them are per- 
fect bazars, the shops on either side being filled with cost- 
ly articles well arranged for effect, rich jewelry, silks of all 
kinds, curiosities in ivory, and all sorts of ornamental and 
fancy work. 

The principal streets are hung with gay banners sus- 
pended from the tops of the houses and from the fronts of 
the shops. The signs, which are gaudy, stand upon the 
end, and, with their bright colors, give a showy aspect to 
the fronts of the buildings; while the great variety of 
curious articles exposed to public view by the open doors ; 
the noisy tide of human beings, which is all the while 
surging through these narrow avenues on foot and in 
chairs, with the coolies carrying burdens of all sorts ; the 
processions which one often meets, and which take up 
the whole street as they pass along, all together make up 
such a scene as can be found in no other city in China, and 
the like to which is not to be found in any other part of 
the world. We were never molested in our peregrinations 
through Canton, but were occasionally greeted with the 
salutation which the Chinese are fond of bestowing upon 
foreigners, Fan-kwa% Fan-hwai (foreign devils, foreign 
devils). Even the little children caught up the sound and 
shouted it after us. 

'The silk weaving, which is largely carried on at Canton, 
is accounted among its curiosities; but it is chiefly inter- 
esting, as showing how the most beautiful fabrics can be 
wrought in small and dirty hovels and retain their purity. 
All the silks of China, for which Canton is most cele- 
brated, are woven by hand on the rudest of looms, fre- 
quently by mere girls and boys. I watched with no little 
surprise the growth of a fine brocade, a little boy mana- 
ging the harness, and a girl sitting at the loom and casting 
the shuttle. Every figure came out of their hands perfect, 
the whole piece looking as if it just came from the fuller, 
without spot. 



152 AROUND THE WORLD. 

We made an excursion one afternoon about two miles 
up the river to the celebrated Puntinqua Aquatic Garden, 
the only specimen of Chinese gardening that I saw that 
exhibited real taste, or tliat had real beauty. The Chinese 
style is exceedingly stiff, and consists, in great measure, in 
training plants, and shrubs, and trees in grotesque shapes, 
distorting the vegetable kingdom into a supposed resem- 
blance to the animal. The Puntinqua Garden is laid out 
on a magnificent scale, is chiefly devoted to the cultivation 
of aquatic plants in picturesque lakes, with beautiful sum- 
mer-houses and palaces scattered among them, and is pro- 
vided with all the requisites for elegant entertainments. 
The furniture is of the most costly description. It was 
planned, and for years kept in order, by a high oflicer of 
government, who made an immense fortune out of his of- 
fice, chiefly by peculation, as it is asserted. His estate of 
several millions of dollars had been confiscated, and this 
extensive and beautiful monument to his taste was rapidly 
going to ruin. JSTo one would probably be found having 
• either the fancy or the means to invest in such an expen- 
sive toy. 

The temples of Canton, as of China generally, are very 
inferior to those of Japan. There is nothing I have seen 
that will bear comparison with the grand old temples of 
Shiba at Yeddo. The latter are kept with scrupulous neat- 
ness, the surroundings as well as the interiors showing per- 
fect taste, while the temples at Canton are simply curious 
places, the approaches to them being often obstructed witli 
rubbish and dirt. One of the most celebrated is that of 
the patron god of the city, better known as the " Temple 
of Horrors," from a series of rude representations of the 
torment of purgatory and perdition which occupy, but do 
not ornament, the square in front of the temple. They are 
wooden or clay images, one group representing the several 
stages of transmigration through which a human being 
passes before he reaches the condition of the lower ani- 
mals. They rival the pictures on the walls of the Church 



CANTON AND ITS SIGHTS. 153 

of San Lorenzo, outside of the walls of Rome. One man 
is represented as undergoing the process of boiling in 
a caldron of oil; another is ground between two mill- 
stones, his head and body having gone through the purify- 
ing process, the lower part of his legs only projecting from 
the mill ; another is placed between two planks, which 
are closely pressed together, and sawed longitudinally, the 
blood oozing out at the sides. But it is all done in such a 
rude style as to make the representation ludicrous instead 
of horrible. At the side of a large open square in front 
of this temple I saw a small inclosure, with a placard in 
front, which read as follows, in plain English : " Mermaid ; 
ten cents to go in and see it." We went in, and found one 
of those curious Japanese manufactures which are known 
the world over, a monkey's head so cleverly affixed to the 
body of a fish as to conceal the line of junction. I asked 
the man who had it in charge if it came from Japan, and 
he simply replied "Humbug," I made several inquiries 
in regard to it, and the only answer I got was " humbug." 
He had evidently got hold of a term the meaning of which 
he did not understand, supposing it to be complimentary. 
The same square was crowded with groups of persons gam- 
bling, consulting astrologers and necromancers, and hav- 
ing a good time generally, while the thoughts of religious 
worship were among the last that could have entered their 
heads. The temple itself is more resorted to by the people 
of the city than any other, but there is very little of the 
form of worship at any. Every man has his shrine at the 
door of his house or shop, at w^hich he burns his joss-sticks, 
and with this vicarious devotion he is probably satisfied. 

Another celebrated joss-house is known as the Temple 
of the Five Hundred Gods. The Chinese deify their an- 
cestors, and it is thus easy to make a large collection of 
gods. These five hundred are carved and gilded life-size 
images of as many sages, real or imaginary, arranged in 
long rows up and down the temple. They are a curious 
sight, especially in the great variety of faces and forms 



154 AEOUND THE WORLD. 

which they present, all classes of features and all nation- 
alities being represented, sometimes with very good effect. 
Among the gods was one in European dress, tight-bodied 
coat and pantaloons ; but how he came to be deified in 
China I did not learn. 

As we approached this temple we saw half a dozen 
priests standing in front of a sort of altar, with their books 
open, ready to commence the service, which we afterward 
heard them intoning in true ritualistic style. One of them, 
liappening to turn his head, saw us approaching, and the 
whole group immediately left their altar and prayer-books 
and gathered around us, the lady who was with me, as 
usual, attracting the chief attention. They at once, as I 
judged from their looks, fell to criticising her dress. They 
assumed that we could not understand their conversation, 
but a gentleman was with me who had been ten years in 
China, and was perfectly familiar with their language, and 
he informed us in English that they were discussing the 
material of which the lady's dress was composed. One 
said it was gauze, another maintained it was worsted, and 
another silk. One of them spoke with commendation of 
her wearing a veil, which they all thought was eminently 
proper for a lady. After they had discussed these points 
to their satisfaction, they returned to their prayer-books, 
and as we walked on through the temple we heard them 
drawling out the service. 

The most imposing temple, and that which seems most 
strictly devoted to purposes of worship, although few of 
the people are seen in it, is the Buddhist temple at Honam, 
directly across the river. It is reached by a long avenue 
of stately trees, with a large archway about half the dis- 
tance from the entrance to the grounds. It has some 
claims, though not great, to magnificence of structure. It is 
well endowed, and supports a large number of lazy priests 
with closely-shaven heads, and a considerable number of 
that sacred animal known at home as the hog. The ani- 
mals (I mean the swine, though the priests have scarcely 



CANTON AND ITS SIGHTS. 1 5 5 

an}^ stronger marks of intelligence in their countenances) 
are fed from the funds of the temple, and literally roll in 
fat. Whether they die a natural death, or are made to 
contribute to the support of the priests, I do not know, but 
the preservation of life is a part of the Buddhist religion. 
I attended the service, which is performed daily by the 
priests without any worshipers. About twenty officiated, 
and the service, which consisted of chanting, intoning, ring- 
ing of bells, striking a tom-tom, and various bowings and 
genuflections, with marchings up and down the temple, was 
very like that which may be witnessed in any Roman Cath- 
olic church. The chanting was well done, and had a pleas- 
ing effect upon the ear. I have before remarked upon the 
similarity between the Buddhist temples and ceremonies 
and those of the Eomanists, and every where it was the 
same. 

There is nothing picturesque in the ordinary dress of the 
Chinese. Like the Japanese, they wear the everlasting 
dull blue cotton, all excepting the really wealthy, and, un- 
like the blue of the sky, which it is very unlike, it becomes 
any thing but pleasing to the eye after one has looked upon 
some millions wearing it. The Chinese, too, are the reverse 
of neat in their personal habits, and one soon comes to as- 
sociate this with the blue cotton clothing which is seen 
wherever clothing is used at all. Consequently we came 
to doubt whether the grand display of gorgeous attire of 
which we had read was not all in the imaginations of the 
writers, but we had an opportunity while in Canton to con- 
firm all that we had read and heard. 

Some of our friends informed us two or tliree days in 
advance of a grand procession which was to take place in 
honor of one of the gods, an uncouth image which was to 
be taken from the temple and paraded through the streets, 
and a friend very kindly made arrangements for us to view 
it from the balcony of a large tea-merchant's hong. The 
street itself, like the others through which the procession 
was to pass, was about eight feet wide — not a very grand 



156 AROUND THE WORLD. 

theatre for sucli a display. But they must needs use such 
avenues as they have, and there are none much wider. We 
went early, in time to see the operations connected with 
the assorting, mixing, and flowering of the teas, which last 
consists of mingling with the leaves of the tea various flow- 
ers, the chief of which is the jessamine, to give it fragrance. 
Soon after we arrived the requisite number of cups was 
placed before us, the choicest tea of the establishment 
placed in each cup, the hot water poured on, and a second 
cup or saucer placed over the first to preserve the flavor, 
the universal mode of making tea in China. To one who 
is accustomed to having milk and sugar added, this decoc- 
tion is very insipid ; but the hospitality must be accepted, 
and it was renewed, on this as on other occasions, as often 
as the proprietor, who could not speak or understand a 
word of English, imagined we were thirsty. 

We waited more than an hour for the procession to ar- 
rive, and, in the mean time, were the objects of as much 
curiosity as the procession itself. During the two hours 
that it was moving, we (especially, if not wholly, the lady 
that was with me) fairly divided the honors of the day with 
the Dragon god. The Chinese, like the Japanese, never be- 
come tired of looking at foreign ladies (in the case of Amer- 
ican ladies I do not wonder), and while we looked at the 
pageant that was passing before us, men, women, and chil- 
dren stared into the balcony, as if such a sight as an Amer- 
ican lady had never been seen in Canton. How many of 
them bestowed upon us the usual compliment, Fan-hwai 
(foreign devils), I could not tell. 

After we had waited long, the sound of tom-toms, and 
cymbals, and gongs, and triangles, and then of Chinese 
flutes and various rude instruments, was heard, and one of 
the most gorgeous processions that I ever beheld passed be- 
fore us. There was more or less sameness between differ- 
ent parts, but there was a great variety, especially in the 
costumes of the persons composing it, and in the richly-em- 
broidered canopies which were carried along in large num- 



CANTON AND ITS SIGSTS. 157 

bers. I made some notes of the component parts of the 
procession, and will copy only a specimen. Of conrse I 
am unable to picture the scene as it moved on like a pano- 
rama, or like the endless turniug of a kaleidoscope in which 
the gayest colors and richest combinations appear. 

First came a band of police-officers (as in New York) to 
drive away the crowd who had assembled in the narrow 
street to see the sight ; then men carrying immense Chi- 
nese lanterns, ornamented in every conceivable manner 
with rich colors ; nest a company of small boys elegantly 
dressed in silks of various colors, with caps embroidered in 
gold, and set off with the feathers of the golden pheasant 
three feet in length ; music consisting of a sort of flageolet, 
with cymbals and gongs; coolies bearing vermilion and 
gilded tablets with Chinese inscriptions (which I did not 
attempt to copy) ; more boys on foot, elegantly dressed as 
before ; silk banners in various colors borne aloft ; a boy 
on horseback, his own dress of the richest description, and 
the housings of his horse richly embroidered (boys thus 
dressed and decorated in every imaginable way were dis- 
tributed singly through the procession, until in its different 
parts there were more than a hundred, in a city where 
horses are scarcely ever seen); a rich canopy of silk em- 
broidered all over with birds of gay plumage (and such 
canopies came along every minute in the long procession) ; 
elegant sedan chairs, cases elaborately carved and orna- 
mented, carried by the coolies, and containing gifts to the 
god ; boy bands of music, and boys on horseback dressed 
in fancy costumes, representing sages of the empire and 
emperors, some with long flowing beards and some with 
bows and arrows ; a large white crane pouncing down with 
joss-sticks in its mouth as an offering; fruits and confec- 
tionery in endless variety for the god to eat ; glass cases 
containing jewelry and precious stones, including the Chi- 
nese jade-stones, loaned undoubtedly for the show; com- 
panies of men dressed in the most costly silks," crimson, sal- 
mon, orange, green, blue, etc., the colors of the dresses and 



158 ^^0 UND THE WOULD. 

the different parts blended and contrasted with exquisite 
taste ; large, lofty embroidered silk canopies passion, and 
so of the Chinese lanterns and Chinese music ; boys richly 
dressed and painted, carried on platforms, and girls carried 
in a similar manner, resting on rods of iron concealed, and 
apparently suspended in aii^, as if caught up in the act of 
dancing or performing some gymnastic feat. Toward the 
close of the procession came the public executioner, with 
the heavy sword which takes off the head at a blow. 

This does not begin to complete the catalogue, but, as 
far as it goes, it is a faithful transcript of notes made on 
the spot. It was a perfect marvel to see such a pageant 
got up by the dull-looking Chinese, and to observe what a 
variety of scenes the turns of the kaleidoscope would bring 
up as the pageant moved on. 

I saw, in the course of my walks, two large wedding pro- 
cessions. One I encountered in a narrow street, and was 
squeezed into a corner during the time of its passing, but 
it was a curious sight, and well worth a squeeze to see it. 
The parties did not seem to be present, and the procession 
was composed mainly of the presents made, or supposed to 
be made, to the bride, which were on their way to her home. 
They consisted of all sorts of articles that would be likely 
to enter into the outiit, the housekeeping, and living of a 
newly-married couple. There were tables, chairs, trunks, 
boxes, blankets, etc. ; even fowls in coops, and vegetables in 
baskets. I heard it suggested, as the long procession was 
passing by, that the Chinese are not behind the more civil- 
ized nations in the art of swelling the displa}^ of presents 
on such occasions, and that a large portion of the articles 
that I saw moving in snch grand ceremonial, like those 
which we sometimes see so ostentatiously displayed on ta- 
bles in the Western world, were hired for the occasion, and 
might be seen the next day gracing other nuptials. 

Another procession of a similar character I met at one 
of the ferries between Honam and Canton, and, as the boats 
are small, it was a long time in passing over. The boats 



CANTON AND ITS SIGHTS. 159 

were plying back and forth for nearly an hour, at the end 
of which time, having finished my call and returned, I ob- 
served it just leaving the river. This procession was even 
ga-yer and more varied than the one 1 had met in the heart 
of the city, and was designed, like all others, to attract at- 
tention by its gorgeous character. Nor was it a failure in 
this respect. Great numbers of persons w^ere standing 
around discussing the value and beauty of the articles, and, 
I presume, making their comments upon the parties and 
families interested, who obtained their satisfaction in being 
talked about by the street-goers. Whether they found a 
place in the gazette I am not able to say, as I did not read ' 
the Chinese papers next day. 

I came once, in the city of Shanghai, upon a long funer- 
al procession which was preceded by a powerful band of 
music — powerful in amount . of noise and not of music. 
The mourners, real or professional, in white, were carried 
in sedan chairs, and at different intervals in the course of 
the procession companies of men in long white garments 
filled up the train and kept up a constant wailing, making 
the scene mournful even in the midst of the crowd which 
.always fills the streets of a Chinese city. ISTot the most 
grotesque ceremonies, nor the most matter-of-business cir- 
cumstances, can divest death of its solemnity or bereave- 
ment of its touching character. The imagination will al- 
ways supply enough that is melancholy. 

A much simpler funeral I saw outside the walls of the 
same city. It consisted of two common coolies who were 
bearing to the grave, slung upon a pole, the cofiins of two 
children apparently five or six years of age. They were 
not attended by a single relative or friend, but were to be 
buried like dogs. Children in China are not considered 
worth a funeral, or even mourning, unless they have ar- 
rived at the age of eight or ten years. 



IQQ AMOUNn THE WOULD. 



XI. 

CHINESE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 

One of the most curious but not the most agreeable parts 
of a traveler's experience in going round the world is to be 
found in the great diversity of manners and customs in re- 
gard to eating and drinking. One can accommodate him- 
self readily to many new circumstances in which he finds 
himself on stepping into a new country, but he can not al- 
ways make his taste agree with the tastes of the people 
among whom he is thrown. Happily, in this age of the 
world he finds some of the staples of life much the same 
the world over, so that he is not obliged practically to put 
the most fastidious of the senses to the strong test which it 
had to endure, when traveling, as one of the fine arts, was 
more in its infancy ; but he can still indulge in observation 
and speculation to his heart's content. 

The Chinese fi'om time immemorial, at least from the 
days when we studied the pictorial geography, have been 
celebrated for the range of their animal diet, and for some 
of the luxuries of life which are peculiar to the celestial 
kingdom. To begin with the first course, soup. All the 
world knows that in China they have a delicacy which has 
not reached other parts, in birds'-nest soup. One of my 
first inquiries, as I got into the streets of Canton, was after 
this commodity, or the nests from which it is made, and I 
was taken into a fine shop, fitted up in a costly manner, 
where it was the only article sold. 

Birds' -nests are a great luxury in China, being within the 
reach of the wealthy alone. They are sold at prices grad- 
uated according to the quality of the article, none of any 
value bringing a less price than their weight in silver, and 
some bringing almost their weight in gold. Nests are sold 



CHINESE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. \Q\ 

as high as $30 or $40 a pound. The nests are simply a 
mass of pure gelatine, secreted in some way by a species of 
swallow {Hirundo esculenta), and deposited against a wall, 
just as the swallows in our country stick a nest of mud 
against a beam. Some naturahsts maintain that the gela- 
tine is formed from a sort of sea-foam which the swallow 
gathers, and which is exuded from the mouth of the bird. 
It resembles the gelatine known by the name of isinglass, 
and the purer sort is almost transparent. There is nothing 
repulsive in its appearance, and its origin is just as honor- 
able and commendatory as that from which our jellies are 
made at home — I am disposed to think more so. The nests 
come chiefly from the island of Java, where they are ob- 
tained with great labor, and often at much peril, from deep 
caves along the coast. Some of these caves on the southern 
coast of the island are approached only by a perpendicu- 
lar descent of great depth, by means of ladders, the raging 
of the sea below preventing all approach from the water. 
When collected they are assorted into different grades, 
those which have not been occupied by the birds bringing 
the highest price, and the other grades prices according to 
cleanliness and quality. From one to two million dollai's' 
worth are imported every year into Canton. I put a fine 
specimen of the nest into my trunk for importation into 
America. 

The Chinese do not have as great a variety of animal 
food as the Western nations, but they make use of some 
which most nations reject. I find a great diversity in the 
testimony of travelers and residents in regard to the use of 
" rats, cats, and puppies," some of the latter (I mean the 
residents) stoutly afiirming that such animals are not eaten 
at all, or, if so, onl}^ in cases of extremity, where nothing 
else in the shape of food can be obtained. But I have seen 
all these exposed for sale in the markets of Canton in the 
very heart of the city. 

There are dog markets where nothing else is sold, and 
where day after day I have seen dogs dressed and ready 

L 



152 AROUND THE WORLD. 

cooked. There are several such markets in the city. Rats 
also, alive and dead, fresh and dried, are regularly and con- 
stantly sold, and I have seen them in all these stages of 
preparation as I Lave been passing. One plump fellow I 
saw suspended by his tail from a market-hook waiting for 
a purchaser, but all the while struggling to escape, while 
the dried specimens hanging around him mocked his ago- 
ny, and awaited their destiny with more composure. There 
is no more reason for denying that such animals are regu- 
larly sold in the markets of Canton for food than that beef 
and mutton are sold in the markets of New York. And 
yet it is nevertheless true that the mass of the people do 
not use them. Their use is conlined to those who are un- 
able to obtain flesh meat that is more expensive. 

Another staple in the line of animal food is pork. Chi- 
nese pigs are celebrated the world over for their excellent 
quality, and, as well as Shanghai chickens, have long been 
imported into America. They are raised with great care 
— as carefully, if not more so, than the children. They are 
often kept in little cages in the shops and houses, where 
they receive every attention, and are fed with the choicest 
food instead of living on what is thrown away. And a 
very quiet and well-behaved race they are. They are car- 
ried about the streets in baskets just large enough for them 
to be slipped into with their legs folded, and in this state 
are laid away at the markets and other places, but I do not 
remember ever to have heard in China a single note of that 
dulcet music which is their peculiar forte in other parts. 
Perhaps it is out of gratitude that they remain so quiet, for 
I have been told that, until the government interfered and 
required that they should be carried in baskets, they were 
slung by the heels across a pole, a mode of conveyance 
which would very naturally develop their musical powers. 

The fruits of China are generally poor and destitute of 
flavor. We had some fine grapes from the extreme north, 
but the only fruit in the south that was in season and real- 
ly palatable was the Amoy pumelo, corresponding to the 
West India shaddock. 



CHINESE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 



163 



The cultivation of small feet is not altogether peculiar to 
the higher classes, nor to those 
who are exempt from labor. It 
is regarded as a mark of distinc- 
tion, but only as conformity to 
fashion distinguishes its votaries. 
In every city great numbers of 
women, perhaps a quarter or 
more of the female population, 
may be seen toddling about the 
streets on their pegs, looking very 
much as if their feet had been 
cut off and they were walking on 
the stumps. It is difficult to bal- 
ance themselves in walking, and 
they frequently resort to a third 
peg in the shape of a cane to 
keep themselves straight. The 
custom of closely bandaging the 
feet from infancy is not so inju- 
rious as might be supposed, but 
it greatly interferes with locomotion. 

Every one who visits China or reads about it is naturally 
curious to learn something about the great staple of the 
country, which has become the common beverage of the 
world. The tea plant is a shrub which, left to itself, would 
grow to the height of twenty feet and more, but as culti- 
vated for the production of tea it is cut down and kept 
down to four or five feet in height. It is raised chiefly in 
the central regions. The leaves are gathered several times 
during the season, the earliest, tender leaves being account- 
ed the best. The first crop is usually gathered in the third 
year from planting, and at the end of about seven years the 
plants are renewed or cut down to the ground, new shoots 
springing up from the roots. Plants treated in this way 
will live for twenty-five or thirty years and produce good 
crops. 




OUI^ESE SMALL FOOT. 



IQ4: ABOUND THE WORLD. 

The difference between hlach and green teas is not a dif- 
ference of nature, bnt of manufacture ; both may be pro- 
duced from the same identical shrub, according to the 
treatment of the leaves. In preparing green tea the leaves 
are dried, or roasted as the process is called in China, bj 
artificial heat, in pans, almost immediately after being gath- 
ered. After about five minutes roasting they become moist 
and soft, when they are placed on the rolling table and 
rolled wdth the hands. They are then restored to the pans, 
which are kept in motion for about an hour, at the end of 
which time they are well dried. The color at first is a dull 
green, but it becomes Jixed or brighter after a short time. 
It is afterward sifted and fired, or heated, before being 
packed for market. The high color of green tea is often 
imparted to it by drugs, which are not the most wholesome 
for a beverage. For hlack tea, the leaves, on being picked, 
are spread out in the open air for some time, then tossed 
about until they become soft, when they are roasted in pans 
for a few minutes, and then rolled, after which they are 
exposed to the air for several hours, and finally dried slowly 
over the fii'e until they acquire the color which is perma- 
nent. The process of drying produces a chemical change 
in the juices of the plant, and the difference in the process 
of greater or less exposure to the atmospheric air in the 
curing accounts for the difference in the color and flavor 
of the two kinds of tea. 

In preparing it for market, fragrant flowers are distrib- 
iited through the tea as it is placed in the chest, to add to 
its flavor. The jessamine is most commonly used on ac- 
count of its fragrance. Tea is unquestionably often adul- 
terated, and, perhaps, most frequently by the mixing of 
spent leaves with those that are fresh. In the vicinity of 
Shanghai I saw old leaves revamped in this way in large 
quantities. When we remember the immense quantity con- 
sumed in the empire, and that the mode of preparing the 
beverage is not by thorough steeping, but simply by pour- 
ing hot water upon a small quantity of leaves in each cup, 



CHINESE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. \Q^ 

leaving nrncli of the strength still in the leaves, it does not 
appear strange that even the Chinese should resort to this 
mode of adulteration. We are sometimes shocked at the 
thought that barbarous nations should adulterate any thing 
designed for market, when adulteration is one of the most 
common, if not most refined arts of civilized life. 

Who does not remember how he was puzzled, when a 
child, with the idea that the Chinese, living on the opposite 
side of the globe, must of necessity be standing on their 
heads ; and, although the matter was fully explained on the 
principle of universal gravitation toward the centre of the 
earth, the puzzle never seemed to get entirely out of the 
youthful head. Children of larger growth, on coming to 
China, find a hundred puzzles where before they had only 
one. The Chinese seem to be standing on their heads in 
almost every respect; they reverse the general orders of 
society in more ways than I can attempt to enumerate. In 
China the mariner's compass does not point to the north, 
but to the south ; in other words, the index is placed upon 
the opposite end of the needle, a fact which must be kept 
in mind by those who follow the compass, as it might make 
some difference in laying their course, whether they go 
north or south, east or west. So in regard to the different 
points of the compass, they reverse the occidental order, 
and call northwest westnorth, southeast eastsouth, etc. 

When they meet a person whom they wish to salute, in- 
stead of taking him by the hand and giving it a hearty 
shake, the ordinary salutation with us, they shake their own 
hands, putting them together and moving them up and 
down. In most civilized countries it is considered a mark 
of respect, and even of ordinary politeness, to take off the 
hat, unless it be for one with whom we are on the most fa- 
miliar terms. But the Chinese, on the contrary, regard it 
as showing undue familiarity to uncover the head, and al- 
though they may remove their shoes on coming into your 
presence, they never think of removing the hat, or cap, or 
whatever they may be wearing. The general head-gear 



IQQ ABOUND THE WORLD. 

of the men is a sort of skull-cap. If a Chinamau wishes 
to do you special honor, instead of placing you at his right 
hand, you will have a seat or a standing-place on his left. 
When invited to a feast or other entertainment, the men 
and women, although invited together, do not eat together, 
but occupy separate rooms, a custom which is only partially 
imitated in strictly English society, where ladies are expect- 
ed to retire early by themselves, in order to give the gen- 
tlemen an opportunity to smoke and drink to their hearts' 
content. 

I am sorry to say that the female sex is not regarded 
with much respect until it wears the honors of maternity. 
Girls in China are of very little account. While at Can- 
ton I visited, by invitation, the house of a Vvealthy and 
highly educated man, one of the Howqua family. I found 
him in his library, surrounded with books and works of 
art, some of which he had executed himself. His house 
was an extensive palace, and every thing about it, as well 
as his manners and conversation, indicated high culture 
and refined taste. His little boy coming into the room, I 
asked the father how many children he had, and his reply 
was " One, and two daughters ;" as if the daughters were 
not deserving of the name of children. The lady who ac- 
companied me, and who soon afterward was admitted to 
the wife's apartments, laughingly attempted to impress 
upon his mind the superiority of the feminine portion of 
his household, including the two daughters. He took it all 
in evident good humor, but it was more than doubtful 
whether any impression was made upon his mind in that 
direction. 

The style of dress in China is not only different, as a 
whole, from what w^e are accustomed to, but there are 
some strange transmutations which strike the attention of 
a traveler. The men very commonly wear a sort of petti- 
coat — a loose, close garment reaching to the feet, while 
the women, on the other hand, wear trowsers or pantaloons, 
literally and not metaphorically. I may say that the lat- 



CHINESE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. \Q^ 

ter wear the pantaloons metaphorically as well as literally, 
for, contrary to the general ideas in regard to the position 
and influence of woman in these Oriental countries, there 
is no part of the world where family authority resides more 
in the woman. The wife may not have the same high po- 
sition outside of the family, but maternal authority in 
China is well nigh supreme, and grand-maternal authority 
is sometimes still greater. A mother does not lose her 
right to command her son when he marries or becomes the 
head of a numerous household of his own, but continues to 
hold the sceptre over succeeding generations. 

The dress-makers and milliners in China are men in- 
stead of women, and the various trades and occupations 
are singularly mixed up. Having occasion to order an 
Eastern hat, or topee as it is called, as a protection against 
the sun, the rays of which often prove fatal, even in the 
cool season, I sent my measure through a friend. A day 
or two after, word was brought to my room that the tailor 
was at the door waiting to see me. On sending for him, I 
found it was the tailor who had made my hat, and who 
came to see whether it was a fit. In the streets of a Chi- 
nese city, almost every man you meet has a fan either in 
his hand or tucked in his dress, back of his neck; while, on 
the other hand, the women indulge freely in a habit which 
in our country is supposed to belong to the other sex — that 
of smoking. The men wear their hair as long as it will 
grow, longer than any modern reformers that I have ever 
seen in America, while the women carefully put theirs up. 

In China, when a man gets angry with another and 
wishes to be revenged upon him, instead of killing the ob- 
ject of his hatred he kills himself. The principle on which 
he does it is the supposition that the man whom he hates 
will be answerable for his murder, and will be more heavi- 
ly punished by evil spirits in this world and in the world 
to come than if his life had been taken. It is certainly, 
for society, a safer mode of administering vengeance than 
that which prevails in civilized countries, where the pistol 



IQg ABOUND THE WORLD. 

and bowie-knife are made to do their work upon iinsus- 
pecting victims. The Canton policemen have quite as orig- 
inal a mode of performing their" services. Instead of look- 
ing for marauders, they go about the streets at night sound- 
ing a loud rattle or tom-tom, which may be heard at least a 
mile, and which seems intended to warn all misdoers that an 
oiBcer of justice is at hand, and that they must accomplish 
what they have to do and get out of the way before he ar- 
rives. 

The language of China is another of its contradictions. 
The spoken language is never written, and the written lan- 
guage is never spoken, so that one may be familiar with 
Chinese books, and not understand any thing of the conver- 
sation of the people ; or he may be proficient in the collo- 
quial tongue, and not understand a word of what he reads. 
In reading a book, the Chinese begin at the end (that is, at 
our end) and read backward ; they read from top to bot- 
tom instead of across the page, the lines running down- 
ward, and numbering from right to left. The running title 
of the book or page is at the side instead of the top of the 
page, and the contents of the chapter at the end instead 
of the beginning. The notes, which with us are at the 
bottom or in the side margin, in Chinese books are at the 
top of the page. 

The Chinese have a custom quite peculiar to themselves 
of ordering their coffins and having them sent home long 
before they have any thought of dying. They take pecul- 
iar pride in selecting the best materials, having them made 
good and strong, and, when they can afford it, in the most 
expensive style, and then they take great pleasure in show- 
ing them to their friends, keeping them where they may be 
seen by all who call. For the same reason, perhaps a mo- 
tive of pride, they preserve the bodies of their friends in 
the house sometimes for weeks and months after death, 
making a display of the costly receptacle. 

I might greatly extend this catalogue of contrarieties by 
speaking of the manner in which their schools are con- 



CBIKESE MANNUSS AND CUSTOMS. \Q2 

ducted ; of the old men flying kites, and the boys looking 
on ; of wearing white instead of black for mourning ; of 
all classes whitening their shoes with chalk instead of black- 
ing them ; of mounting the offside of the horse when they 
ride, etc. But this is enough. 

China and the Chinese are a great mystery to the world 
at large, and scarcely less of a mystery to the dwellers in 
China than to those who never set foot within the Flowery 
Land. The people of the country are a study, but a study 
in which little actual progress is made. I have heard those 
who have been here ten years or more confess that they 
knew as little of Chinese character, and were almost as un- 
able to comprehend the national traits, as when they first 
came to this country. The Chinese are a very stolid, in- 
communicative, undemonstrative race, so that a foreigner 
may be associated with them, or may have them in his 
house as servants, and constantly in his presence for years, 
and know no more about them at the end of this period 
than the first day he saw them. 

I have found one key which, if it does not unlock the 
mysteries of the Chinese mind, explains the uniform and 
stereotype character which the nation has maintained for 
centuries, and which it seems determined to maintain for 
centuries to come. A Chinaman is a Chinaman in every 
part of the empire and the world over. He is nothing else, 
and can be made nothing else, and he has been the same 
for long ages. One explanation of this is to be found in 
the fact that the educated and ruling class of the country 
are all cast in one mould. The ideas of the nation were 
formed more than two thousand years ago ; and the only 
system of education which has existed since that time has, 
per force, not only compelled the people to adopt these 
ideas, but has ground them into their very natures, and 
made them a part of the national character, as much so as 
the peculiar features of the countenances of the jDcople. 

All who have read any thing about China must have 
met with frequent references to the " Competitive Exam- 



170 AROUND THE WOBLD. 

inations," which are the great stimulus to education. The 
Chinese are eminently a literary people, a large portion of 
them being able to read and write, while the highly edu- 
cated class is very numerous. But this is not the result 
of any such system of general instruction as prevails in 
American or European countries. The schools do not com- 
prise the mass of the children, nor are they of a high class. 
The education of the people is in a great measure volun- 
tary, and, such as it is, is secured by its being the only road 
to position in society and to political preferment. The 
" Competitive Examination" is the ordeal through which 
all must pass successfully in order to secure any high stand- 
ing, and this examination is a sort of mould in which the 
Chinese mind is cast, and from which it comes out uni- 
form in shape and character. It is conducted on this wise : 
The empire is divided into provinces and districts, for 
each of which there is a separate examination — the dis- 
trict, the provincial, and the imperial. No one is required 
to go through an examination, but it is open to all, with 
the exception of a few classes, such as the children of exe- 
cutioners, jailers, prostitutes, etc. Before any one can be 
a candidate for the lowest, the district examination, he 
must have passed through a satisfactory examination be- 
fore a magistrate, and must present satisfactory testimo- 
nials as to his parentage, character, etc. At the appointed 
time, the candidates, who usually number many thousands, 
assemble at the capital city of the district, and have as- 
signed to them subjects for essays and a poem, which 
they are required to produce without assistance and with- 
in twenty-four hours. The most extensive arrangements 
are made for the accommodation of this vast number of 
persons, and also to prevent their obtaining any external 
aid. The essays are carefully examined by government 
officials, and so rigid is the ordeal that usually not more 
than one in a hundred passes the test. The successful 
competitors receive the degree of B.A. — not Bachelor of 
Arts, but " Beautiful Ability." And the point peculiarly 



CHINESE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 171 

noteworthy is, that all the themes are taken from the writ- 
ings of the Chinese sages. The essays are not only expect- 
ed to be a reflection of their teachings, but it is impossible 
that it should be otherwise, inasmuch as the previous train- 
ing of thQ candidate has been confined almost exclusively 
to their writings. Only those who receive the first degree 
in the district examination are allowed to compete for the 
second in the provincial. 

The provincial examination occurs once in three years 
at the capital of the province, where a large hall, as it is 
called, is devoted exclusively to this purpose. The one at 
Canton (the capital of the province of Quang Tung) which 
I visited is 1330 feet long, 583 feet wide, and contains cells, 
arranged in long rows like stalls for horses, for 8653 can- 
didates. The whole inclosure is surrounded by a high 
wall, and each row of cells is inclosed, and under the su- 
pervision of an officer, whose duty it is to prevent all com- 
munication between the candidates or with the outer world. 
Here they are shut up, after having been carefully search- 
ed, to prevent their taking in upon their persons any thing 
that might assist them in the preparation of their essays. 
Themes, taken as before from the " Classics," or " Four 
Books," are then given to them on several successive days ; 
the essays and poems, which must be produced within a 
given time, are carefully copied in red ink to prevent rec- 
ognition by the examiners of the source from which they 
come, and they are then subjected to the rigid criticism of 
literary men appointed by the imperial government. On 
the close of the examination, the names of the successful 
competitors are posted upon the outer wall, and are her- 
alded throughout the province. They bear about the same 
proportion to the whole as before — one to a hundred. 
They receive the second degree, A.M. — not Masters of 
Arts, but "Advanced Men" — and become candidates for 
the third and highest examination, which is held triennial- 
ly at Peking, and which is equally rigid with the pre- 
ceding. 



172 ABOUND THE WORLD. 

Those who pass and receive the last degree become eli- 
gible to public offices, and enter into the most honored and 
ruling class in the empire. Only two or three hundred 
out of the thousands who have passed the lower succeed in 
the imperial examination ; but in this, as in the lower, they 
]iave the privilege of trying again, and thus many present 
themselves triennially, term after term. In this way fifty 
or a hundred times as many as are successful in obtaining 
the prize, receive the training and become educated mem- 
bers of the communities to which they belong. 
% There is no prize presented to the mind of a Chinese 
youth which is such a stimulus to unbending effort as the 
t]^rd degree. It comprises all that his ambition could de- 
sire — social position, office, honor, wealth. The successful 
candidate, on his return to his home from the capital, is 
feasted and f ^ted, and frequently a pagoda or some other 
building is erected in his honor, and as a memorial of the 
honor which he reflects upon his native city. 

I have referred to this subject only as giving something 
of an insight into Chinese character, and as showing why 
it is that the Chinese remain so much the same, while oth- 
er nations are undergoing change. They are educated in 
a system of ideas which have been handed down through 
twenty centuries ; the hoary-headed antiquity of these ideas 
makes them venerable in their eyes, and it is not strange 
that they wish future generations to travel in the same 
path which they and their fathers have trod so long. The 
teachings of the Chinese sages, Confucius, Mencius, and 
others, are the fountain of their ideas. Few natives live 
up to their own standards, and it is not strange that the 
Chinese practically depart from the wise instruction of 
those sages ; but this is the mould into which the educated 
minds are all poured, and it appears to account for many 
of their national characteristics. 



BELIQIONb OP CHINA. 



173 



XII. 

EELIGIONS OF CHINA. 

The prevailing forms of religion in China are Confu- 
cianism, Buddhism, and Tauism. The former, which is the 
faith of the educated and influential classes, is more a sys- 
tem of philosophy and of morals than a religion. It is 
founded on the teachings of the great Chinese sage who 
flourished about five centuries before the Christian era, 
whose reputed writings contain a vast amount of practical 
wisdom and of pure morality. The Chinese owe much to 
Confucius, and they would be a much better people if they 
followed his precepts more closely. Buddhism is an im- 
portation from India, where it had its rise, and from which 
it passed over Eastern Asia and to the adjacent islands. It 
is now declining, and the temples devoted to its worship 
are in many places going into decay. Tauism lays claim 
rather to the vulgar and uneducated classes. It is a mys- 
tic sort of religion, deals in incantations and astrology, and, 
like spiritualism, pretends to intercourse with the departed 
dead as well as with acknowledged evil spirits. The priests 
are generally ignorant men, and, through mystic art and by 
playing upon the superstition of the people, maintain their 
ascendency over them. 

There is no more striking or more universal trait of Chi- 
nese character than its intense superstition. The religious 
element appears to be wanting; they are simply supersti- 
tious, and no nation is more so. The spirits of the air, the 
earth, and the sea are a constant terror to them, and their 
acts of worship are designed to ward off such influences 
rather than to pay homage to any exalted being. They 
use all sorts of charms to keep off from their persons, and 
houses, and farms the world of evil spirits which in their 



174 AROUND THE WORLD. 

belief are going hither and thither. Ancestral worship is 
universal. No matter in what, part of the world they live, 
the Chinese wish to be brought home when they die, and 
buried with the generations that preceded them ; and while 
they live they pay great respect, a reverence amounting to 
worship, to their departed ancestors, making pilgrimages 
to their graves, adorning their tombs, erecting tablets to 
their memory in costly ancestral halls, burning incense, joss- 
sticks, and candles, and presenting offerings. They rever- 
ence their dead grandfathers more than their gods. 

One of the most common offerings that the Chinese make 
in their worship is exceedingly characteristic — a sort of 
counterfeit money, pasteboard dollars covered with tin-foil, 
resembling silver dollars, and marked accordingly. This 
is sometimes offered to a large amount, counting it at its 
nominal value, and a Chinaman will not only pride him- 
self on making an offering to his god or his ancestor of 
several thousand dollars, which cost him only a trifle, but 
he will fairly chuckle over the thought that his stupid god 
or his dead ancestor, not knowing the difference between 
the counterfeit and the genuine, will give him credit for 
the full amount in good money. 

They have numberless inferior gods — the God of the 
Earth, the God of the Sea, the God of Wealth, the God of 
Letters, the God of Thunder, the God of War, the Kitchen 
God, etc., etc., which are represented by grotesque images 
or pictures. The thieves and the gamblers each have their 
god. They make their appeals to the gods by the use of 
the lot, every temple being provided with a box of sticks 
or straws for the pui'pose. This superstitious disposition 
to rely upon the lot is carried into all the affairs of life. 
The Chinese are all gamblers, gambling every where and 
for every thing. Even the little boys, as I have often seen, 
in going up to a fruit-stand, almost invariably cast the die 
to determine whether they shall have double or nothing 
for their money. 

The efforts to propagate Christianity in China have not 



RELIGIONS OF CHINA. 



175 




CASTING LOTS BEFORE A GOD. 



met with as much success as in some other countries, but 
they are far from being a failure, and there are manifest 
reasons which, while they account for the want of enlarged 
success thus far, do not in the least degree discourage those 
who have undertaken the work. Kowhere have Christian 
missions had greater obstacles to overcome. The opening 
of the free ports did not open China to free intercourse 
with the rest of the world. The traditional seclusion of its 
inhabitants, and their hostility to foreigners and to all for- 
eign notions, exist to this day in all their force. The mass 
of the people regard all other nations as outside barbarians, 
and it is the interest of the educated class to keep alive this 
hatred. They salute missionaries, as well as others, in the 
streets with the title of foreign devils, not knowing or not 
appreciating the motives with which they come to teach a 
new religion. 

Foreign intercourse thus far has been carried on by force. 
The ports were opened, not by the free consent of the Chi- 
nese, but by the guns of foreign powers. The Chinese 
wished to live by themselves, neither interfering with oth- 
ers nor interfered with ; but for purposes of gain, and by 



176 ABOUNB THE WORLD. 

force of arms, foreign nations compelled them to admit the 
commerce and the merchants of the world. This of itself 
was enough to prejudice the" nation against missionaries 
who come from the same lands with the ships of war that 
battered down their forts and their cities. It is not strange 
that Christian teachers should find it hard even to gain the 
ears of those who have been thus treated. And, further- 
more, this force was employed to open China to commerce 
for the express purpose of compelling the authorities to ad- 
mit one of the greatest curses ever thrust upon any peo- 
ple. 

The Opium War and the present opium trafiic are a dark 
blot upon the history of the British government. ISTo one 
can visit the cities of China and witness the debasing and 
destructive effects of opium on the multitudes of miserable 
victims which it is daily depriving of mental and physical 
vigor and consigning to the grave ; no one can read the 
piteous words in which the Chinese commissioners have 
besought the British representatives not to force this de- 
structive drug upon the "nation ; no one can recall the heart- 
less manner in which such appeals were answered with 
threats, and then with broadsides from vessels of war, until 
the Avay was made open for the wholesale introduction of 
opium into all parts of the empire, and wonder, after such 
proceedings on the part of a Christian government, that the 
Chinese do not seem well disposed to accept the Christian 
religion. It is not strange that they should put the two to- 
gether, and regard them with the same hostility. When Sir 
Kutherf ord Alcock, the British embassador, was taking his 
leave of the government at Pekin to return to England on 
a furlough. Prince Kung said to him, " Now that you are 
about to return to your own country, we vrish you to take 
with you your opium and your missionaries." Could any 
thing be more natural ? And yet there are those who im- 
pute the slow progress of Christian missions in China not 
to the obstacles which have been placed in their way, but 
to the cause of missions itself. 



EELIGIONiS OF CHINA. 



177 




PEINCE KTJNG. 



The Rev, J. E.."Wolfe, a Churcli of England missionary of 
long experience in China, writes : 

" There is not a particle of truth, as far as my experience 
goes, in the statement that the Chinese people are opposed to 
the propagation of Christianity, or dislike the missionaries 
simply because they are such. There is, however, one thing 
which the Chinese people dislike, and which has tended more 
than any thing else to produce hatred for foreigners, and cause 
misery and ruin to multitudes of the Chinese people them- 
selves, and that one thing is the act of the British government 
iu compelling the Chinese people at the point of the bayonet 
to buy the. opium, when they most virtuously and patriotical- 
ly protested against it. I have invariably found in my jour- 
neys through the country that this act of the British govern- 
ment is remembei'ed with deep and lasting hatred by all class- 
es of the people, and is handed down from father to son as 
one cause why the English should be held in everlasting ha- 
tred and contempt." 

"While I was at Canton, one of the missionaries wdth 
whom I was crossing the river in a f err^^-boat fell into con- 
versation with two or three intelligent Chinese, and the first 

M 



178 AROUND THE WORLD. 

reply of the person he addressed was, " You are bringing 
opium into the country to destroy us, and we do not want 
to have any thing to do with your religion." 

In no other country has the personal example of irrelig- 
ious men from Christian lands done more to prejudice the 
people against Christianity. Too many of those who go 
to foreign parts lay aside even the restraints of morality by 
which they are bound at home, and set before the heathen 
an example of license in living which becomes a libel upon 
the religion of their native lands. The people of those 
countries can not make the distinction which is made at 
home between those who profess to be governed by the 
principles of Christianity and those who do not ; all are 
called Christians, and the name and cause of true religion 
must bear the burden of those immoralities. I could de- 
tail scenes which I have witnessed on these distant shores 
that were shocking to my own feelings as they would be 
to any Christian mind, and yet they were all laid to the ac- 
count of Christianity. 

The present attitude of the foreign merchants in China 
toward the Chinese is another hinderance to the success of 
efforts made" to promote their conversion to Christianity. 
The spirit of the Opium War is still at work. Foreign mer- 
chants, with few exceptions, go to China without a thought of 
doing the Chinese any good, simply to make money. The 
opportunities for making large fortunes have gone by. /The 
Chinese are getting a measure of the foreign trade into their 
own hands. Trade with the interior is still restricted. These 
and other causes have awakened the hostility of foreigners 
toward the Chinese, and now it is difficult to say where the 
greater degree of hostility lies, with the Chinese or the for- 
eign traders. While I was in China, the desire for another 
war was prevalent among the foreign residents; I might 
say it was almost universal, and the motive was to break 
down the restrictions npon trade, and give foreigners great- 
er opportunities for making money. After all the injuries 
the Chinese have sustained in the past, and with the feel- 



RELIGIONS OF CHINA. 



179 



ings cherished toward them at the present time, I do not at 
all wonder that they are ready to spew every foreigner, 
missionary as well as merchant, out of the land. I do not 
mean to intimate that Christian missionaries sliare in this 
anti-Chinese feeling ; they do not ; but the Chinese do not 
comprehend the different motives which actuate the two 
classes. 

The difficulty of acquiring the language so as to become 
familiar with it has been a great obstacle. A single fact 
will give some idea of this. Through the instrumentality 
of the American Presbyterian Mission, metal types have 
come into use in printing Chinese. The Mission Press at 
Shanghai is the most extensive printing establishment in 
the empire. On entering it, I was confronted with a series 
of amphitheatres, in the interior of each of which stood a 
compositor, and I saw at a glance the immensity of the 
work which every one who learns to read, or write, or print 
the language has to encounter. Each of these amphithea- 
tres was what printers call a case, containing, not twenty- 
six letters, as in English printing offices, but more than 
six thousand different characters or types, and, with the 
combinations, more than thirteen thousand. The Diction- 
ary of Dr. Morrison contained forty thousand separate char- 
acters, which must become familiar to the eye, and various 
inflections must be given to similar words to express the 
ideas associated, or one may fail to express what he means. 
In no language are ludicrous errors more apt to be made 
by giving a wrong accent or inflection, and thus entirely 
changing the sense. 

But, notwithstanding all these difficulties, a great work 
has been already accomplished. Few even of those who 
are familiar with the current work of missions in China 
have any adequate idea of wdiat has actually been done. 
Protestant missionaries are almost the only persons who 
have ever mastered the language. Kot one merchant in a 
hundred, scarcely one in a thousand, makes even the at- 
tempt to acquire it either for reading or speaking. All 



180 ABOUND THE WORLD. 

the Chinese Dictionaries for English students have been 
made by missionaries. The only writers who have pre- 
pared books in Chinese designed to instruct and elevate the 
people have been missionaries. I have before me a cata- 
logue of nearly a hundred works in Chinese on various 
sciences, history, geography, medicine, law, etc., all of which 
have been prepared by Protestant missionaries. They have 
done more than any and all other men to promote a knowl- 
edge of Chinese literature. They have established and 
maintained in Chinese cities hospitals which have been a 
great blessing to the people, and which are doing much to 
prepare the way for the reception of the Gospel of Christ. 
At Canton a hospital was established in 1835 by Dr. Peter 
Parker, then a missionary, which has been a house of mercy 
to hundreds of thousands. During the year that I was at 
Canton there had been 26,457 patients, many of whom re- 
quired skillful surgical treatment. During my stay in that 
city several surgical operations of the most delicate and 
difficult nature were performed. The hospital is now in 
charge of a skillful physician and surgeon. Dr. Kerr, of the 
American Presbyterian Board. 

ISTor have the labors of the missionaries been without im- 
portant spiritual results. In 1850 all who had professed 
themselves Christians did not number four hundred. N"ow 
there are about six thousand communicants in the various 
mission churches. The Presbytery of Ningpo has seven 
churches and about five hundred communicants. At Foo 
Chow there . are about one thousand communicants. At 
Amoy, a station which was first occupied by Eev. David 
Abeel, the devoted missionary whose fervid and eloquent 
appeals in behalf of the cause of missions will never be 
forgotten by any who heard them in his native land, there 
were, when I was in China, nearly thirteen hundred com- 
municants, with thirty-two stations and twenty-eight chap- 
els, chiefly in the country round about. These are only 
some of the fruits which have been gathered. 

In no part of the world is the medical branch of the mis- 



RELIGIONS OF CHINA. 181 

sionary work of more imiDortance than in China. There 
are many parts of the empire where a missionary, in going 
out to preach the Gospel, or to distribute books or tracts, 
would be driven away by a mob, if he did not fare worse ; 
indeed, this is true of almost the w^hole interior of the coun- 
try, but there is not a single spot, city or country, town or 
village, where a medical missionary may not at any time 
set himself down, and, within an hour, make himself per- 
fectly at home with the people — administering to the sick 
and suffering, and, at the same time, preaching the Gospel 
with entire freedom. It is simply marvelous, when we re- 
member the hostility of the Chinese to foreigners, that 
physicians have such ready access to the people, although 
there is a reason for it. The Chinese have no thoroughly 
educated physicians. Their aversion to handling the dead 
is so great that they have no students of anatomy. The 
only really educated physician of whom I heard was edu- 
cated in America. At the same time, they seem to have 
implicit faith in the medical skill of foreign physicians, 
and in their presence lay aside their national hatred. 

Dr. Kerr gave me an account of a visit he once made, in 
company with another missionary, a preacher of the Gos- 
pel, to an interior town which had been the scene of violent 
demonstrations against the Fan-kiuai (the foreign devils). 
As soon as he found a place to sit down, and announced 
the object of his visit, he was surrounded by an eager 
crowd, and all day long he ministered to the sick, who came 
to him by hundreds, while his companion preached without 
any molestation. But for his being a physician, they would 
have been mobbed, if not torn to pieces. When they went 
to their boat at night they had a perfect ovation ; the streets 
were lined with j)eople who were attracted by the benevo- 
lent character of their visit. 

The first Sabbath that I spent at Canton I visited in the 
morning the chapels and schools of the London "Wesleyan 
Missionary Society, and heard a sermon delivered with 
great earnestness and solemnity by a native j)reachei. The 



132 AROUND THE WORLD. 

whole service was in Chinese. The hymns whicli were 
sung were " Rock of Ages," and " Grace, 'tis a charming 
sound." The congregation gave close attention, and the 
whole scene was impressive. At the close of the preach- 
ing I went into the schools and examined the young chil- 
dren in some of the general facts of the Old and New Tes- 
tament histories, and I am sure that no children of the same 
age in America could give more ready or intelligent an- 
swers to the inquiries which were made. From there I went 
to the Treasury-street Chapel, nnder the charge of Rev. Mr. 
Preston, of the American Presbyterian Board, a neat and 
attractive building, situated in the very heart of the old 
city, and on one of its great thoroughfares. The front is 
always open, and passers-by drop in to hear the Word spo- 
ken, some staying through the service, but most moving on 
after listening for a while. Some came in with heavy bur- 
dens on their heads, and set them down while they listened. 
One lad came bringing two cages of birds, which he placed 
on the floor. He soon became evidently interested in what 
he heard. This service is kept up everj^ day, and thousands 
thus hear the message. There are several such places open 
in the city in connection with the different missions, and, 
although the speakers are sometimes interrupted with ques- 
tions and objections, they are never molested. 

The foreign merchants, who are absorbed in their com- 
mercial enterprises, as a general thing, take little interest 
in the missionary work, or in the elevation of the Chinese. 
But one honorable exception I desire to name (there are oth- 
ers), that of the house of Oliphant &, Co. Not only at home, 
but in China, have they made lai'ge gifts to promote the 
cause, and they have more than once placed their vessels at 
the disposal of the missionaries. In 1835 they gave to Mr. 
Medhurst and a companion in his work the use of a vessel 
for a missionary voyage of some months among the ports 
of China, and the following year they sent out from Amer- 
ica another vessel to be employed in the same service. 
Their example is one which might better be followed than 



3fACA0, SINGAPORE, AND PENANG. 1§3 

that of men who seek only to make gain out of this hea- 
then people, and do nothing to elevate them, or to make 
them acquainted with the Gospel from heaven. 



XIII. 

MACAO, SINGAPORE, AND PENANG. 

The sunniest, brightest spot that I saw on the whole 
coast of China is Macao. For this reason I do not regret 
reserving a visit to it as the last before leaving for other 
Oriental lands. It is but a few hours' sail, in a pleasant 
American river steamer, from Hong Kong. 

On our way down the bay the captain entertained us 
with stories of his encounters with Chinese pirates, which 
still infest these rivers and bays. I had seen some speci- 
mens — desperate-looking fellows — -in the criminal court at 
Canton, where they were undergoing torture, a Chinese 
mode of examination ; the judges informing us that they 
liad been on the rack several hours, and were still unwilling 
to confess their crimes. As we were running down the bay 
to Macao, the captain informed us that the waters were still 
swarming with these desperadoes, who were watching ev- 
ery opportunity for seizing vessels, from a steamer down to 
a row-boat, and that they would not hesitate to put to death 
all on board who stood in the way of their rapine. One 
way in which they accomplish their purpose is for a large 
number to take passage on a steamer on which there are 
usually very few European passengers, and to seize the 
vessel. They have a strong temptation to do this in the 
fact that these steamers often carry treasure back and forth. 
We had then on board a large amount of specie ; but the 
captain mildly assured us we had nothing to fear from the 
crowd of Chinese on deck below, as he had an armed man 
at each companion-way, who would instantly give the alarm 



184 AROUND THE .WORLD. 

if any attempt to seize the little steamer should be made. 
All this was very assuring ; but I found his stories far more 
than confirmed in the records of Hong Kong, which I aft- 
erward examined. They contained, for every year, so 
many accounts of piracies in the vicinity, that it seemed t< > 
be the commonest of crimes. Some were committed in 
the very neighborhood of Hong Kong, and many on the 
river between that place and Canton. 

One of the regular passenger steamers between Hong 
Kong and Canton, not long before, was the scene of a des- 
perate encounter with these river pirates, who had come 
on board with the intention of taking the vessel and mur- 
dering all its officers. They seized their opportunity, shot 
the pilot and several of the officers, but the captain, with 
the aid of a lady, who handed out to him through a win- 
dow one musket after another, kept them at bay until he 
had assistance, and the ruffians were overpowered or killed. 
There are no people that would plan an enterprise more 
remorselessly than the Chinese, or carry it out in colder 
blood. Indeed, from all that I have learned of Chinese 
character, they appear to me more destitute of that element 
of our nature th-at we call conscience than any other peo- 
ple I have ever known. 

While we were listening to the captain's piratical yarns 
the city of Macao hove in sight. It stretches along a beau- 
tiful bay and up the hill-sides, and, with its cream-colored 
stone buildings, looks very much like an Italian town on 
Lake Como or Maggiore. Its whole appearance, as you 
approach it, is picturesque. Macao, in reality, is not a Chi- 
nese town. It was first occupied by the Portuguese in 1557, 
and is said to have been allowed them as a residence and a 
trading-place on account of their efforts in destroying the 
pirates which infested the coast. During the last century, 
while the trade of the East India Company with Canton 
was at its height, it enjoyed a high degree of prosperity, 
and became the resort and the home of foreigners from all 
nations. It has more than once proved a refuge for for- 



MACAO, SINGAPORE, AND FUNANG. 



185 



eign merchants when they have been driven ont of the 
ports of China, and it was for a long time the resort of 
Christian missionaries when they could not be admitted 
into the empire itself. It I'eceived a fatal blow when, by 
the treaty of 1842, the ports of China were thrown open, 
and Hong Kong became a British colony. It is now al- 
most entirely deserted by foreigners for purposes of trade, 
though still resorted to, especially by invalids, on account 
of the salubrity of its climate. Its inhabitants are almost 
exclusively Chinese and mixed-breed, descendants of the 
Portuguese. 




Macao was never actually ceded to the Portuguese. 
They continued very reluctantly to pay the imperial gov- 
ernment an annual rental of 500 taels until 1846, when an 
order was given b}^ the Queen of Portugal that the Chinese 
Custom-house on the island should be closed, and the sem- 
blance of Chinese authority obliterated. The execution of 
this order by the Portuguese governor Amiral awakened 
intense hostility on the part of the Chinese population of 



186 AROUND THE WORLD. 

the island, which was no doubt fostered by the officials of 
the empire. The governor, soon after, in opening a new 
street, removed several tombs — a desecration which, in 
their eyes, afforded good cause for visiting their vengeance 
upon him. As he was one day riding on the public drive 
near the Barrier, attended by an aid-de-camp, several Chi- 
namen rushed upon him, dragged him from his horse, and 
severed his head and his hand from his body (the other 
hand having been lost in battle). The whole thing was 
done so instantaneously that, although in open day, no one 
could detect the ruffians. The head and hand were sent as 
trophies to Canton, whence they were afterward obtained 
by negotiation. This transaction led to the assertion by 
the Portuguese of exclusive jurisdiction over the island, 
l)ut the claim has never been acknowledged by the Chi- 
nese. The island has become the chief seat of the cooHe 
or Chinese slave-trade, great numbers being shipped from 
this port. 

The European aspect of the town, utterly unlike the 
low, dull, gloomy Chinese cities, makes it very pleasing to 
the eye after visiting the latter. There are a number of 
fine buildings, some of them beautifully situated on hills 
embraced within the city limits, and affording charming 
views of the town, the harbor, and the adjacent waters. 
Some of the old Portuguese churches are elaborate speci- 
mens of architecture. The f agade and ruins of St. Paul's, 
which was destroyed by fire many years ago, are very pic- 
turesque. The Church of Our Lady of Sorrow, a quaint 
old building, occupies the crest of a hill, which affords one 
of the finest views of the town and its surroundings. A 
large wooden cross, twenty-five or thirty feet in height, 
stands in front of the church, and overlooks the bay. A 
curious legend is related as its history. A devout (or un- 
devout) sailing-master, some time in the last century, in 
a violent storm at sea, when he had little hope of again 
seeing land, made a vow that, if his vessel should be pre- 
served, he would erect a cross out of the mainmast in 



MACAO, SINGAPOEE, AND PUNANG. 



187 




OOOLIE HAEKAOOO^S AT MACAO. 



front of this churchi, and he fulfilled his vow. The church 
is called the " Sailors' Church," and a gentleman who has 
long resided at Macao assured me that it. is a common cus- 
tom with the sailors to bring various parts of the rigging 
of their ships up the steep hill to this church to have them 
blessed. 

A beautiful though lonely spot is known as Camoens's 
Garden, where the great poet, the author of the Lusiad, 
walked, and mused, and wrote. The' grotto which bears his 
name, and a monument to his memory, is a curi6us forma- 
tion of rocks in the midst of extensive grounds, that are 
laid out with great taste, and shaded with large Oriental 
trees. It is just such a spot as a poet would select for the 
indulgence of his fancy, and it has probably lost none of 
its beauty by the lapse of time. Camoens was born in 
1524. He came to the East in 1553, and for a satire upon 



188 AROUND THE WORLD. 

the Viceroy of Goa was banished to Macao. Just at the 
entrance to the beautiful grounds of which I have spoken 
stands the Enghsh Chapel, and immediately behind it is 
the Protestant Cemetery, composed of a series of terraces, 
the whole very carefully and neatly kept. It is just such 
a quiet and beautiful spot as any one might choose to lie 
down in and sleep till the final waking. It is consecrated, 
not for, but by the graves of Morrison, the first and one 
of the noblest of the band of missionaries to the Chinese, 
and several members of his family. Other missionaries 
were also buried here. 

The last evening of our stay in Macao, Captain Endicott 
(a name well known in ISTew York), who had resided here 
more than thirty years, and of whose death I have heard 
with sorrow since leaving China, drove us out to the Bar- 
rier, making the entire circuit of the island, a charming 
drive of several miles, much of it along the sea-shore. On 
our way we passed the temple in which the treaty with 
China was concluded and signed by the United States 
Commissioner, the Hon, Caleb Cushing, and the Chinese 
Commissioner Keying, the former not being allowed to en- 
ter China proper. The Chinese, like the Japanese, have 
no special reverence for their temples, and often use them 
for secular purposes. 

We returned to Hong Kong from Macao, and made our 
preparations for another voyage upon the restless, treacli- 
erous China Sea, the worst of all seas on which I have had 
occasion to sail. Before embarking for Calcutta we were 
assured that at this season of the ^-ear, the last of Novem- 
ber, we should have a delightful passage to Singapore, 
with only enough of the northeast monsoon to keep the 
air from stagnating, and the sea from becoming like mol- 
ten glass. But I have learned to put little faith in predic- 
tions of the weather, even by sailors, having been obliged 
so often to interpret prophecies by contraries. I now wait 
for the weather to come before building upon it any sub- 
stantial castles. We found the predictions in regard to 



IfACAO, SINGAPORE, AND PENANG. ^gQ 

this voyage as much at fault as ever. But, before writ- 
ing out my log, let me introduce the reader to our ship, 
with its passengers and crew. 

There is no regular line of mail steamers between Hong 
Kong and Calcutta direct. The English Peninsular and 
Oriental mail steamer (always called in the East " the P. 
and O. Line") leaves Hong Kong once a month, touches at 
Singapore, and then runs across to Point de Galle, the 
southern cape of the island of Ceylon, where the passen- 
gers for Calcutta are transferred to another steamer, which 
touches at Madras on its way up to the Hoogly. The 
French steamers of the Messageries Imperiales also touch 
at Singapore and Ceylon, but do not go to Calcutta. 

There are large, fine steamers, engaged principally in 
the opium trade, which take passengers back and forth, 
and, as there is no opium going to India, the voyage in 
that direction is made very comfortably. They touch at 
Singapore and Penang. In one of these, the Hindostan, 
Captain de Smidt, we took passage. Going on board, we 
stowed ourselves and our luggage away, and then began to 
look around for our fellow-passengers, who, with the crew, 
formed such a curious commingling of races, that I took 
the trouble to ask the captain for his part of the catalogue, 
which I found to be as follows : The captain was a Bel- 
gian by parentage, born at the Cape of Good Hope, a Brit- 
ish subject, and had spent all his life upon the sea, a true 
cosmopolitan. He was, by the way, a noble specimen of 
the sailor, well educated and well read, very affable and 
communicative. The first ofticer was a Scotchman, the 
others Scotch and English ; the quartermasters were Por- 
tuguese, the gunner half Malay and half Portuguese, the 
carpenter a Chinese, the firemen Chittagong Indians, who 
stand the heat better than any others ; the crew, a sa\'age- 
looking set of fellows, were Malays, Bengalese, Hindoos, 
Persians, Arabians, Bombay, Muscat, and Zanzibar men — 
one or two of them real African negroes. 

Among the passengers we numbered eight Americans, 



190 AROUND THE WOULD. 

who took possession of one side of the deck, which, in an- 
ticipation of hot weather, was to be our home day and night 
for nearly a fortnight. On the opposite side of the deck 
were several wealthy Jews, the ladies in a blaze of dia- 
monds as they came on deck ; three Parsees, two of whom, 
a gentleman and his wife, were our fellow-passengers on 
crossing the Pacific Ocean. Two Armenians subsequently 
came on board. The deck-passengers were Chinese, Ben- 
galese, Hindoos, Mohammedans, and I do not know what 
all. "We did not want for variety ; but, strange to say, not- 
withstanding the numerous nationalities, and the fact that 
the most of our passengers were residents of Oriental coun- 
tries, the only language that was ordinarily spoken was En- 
glish. This enabled us all — Jews and Gentiles, Parsees, 
Hindoos, Mohammedans, and Armenians — to become well 
acquainted, and we had a very pleasant time during the 
voyage. Kor was religious conversation debarred. Ori- 
ental and Western politeness allowed us to speak freely of 
each other's views without any offense being given. It 
would be rare to find so many religions represented where 
such freedom of intercourse and of conversation was en- 
joyed. 

We had but fairly got out of the harbor and from under 
the shelter of the headlands when we caught the monsoon, 
blowing fresh and strong. It upset all our calculations in 
more senses than one, but the sweet assurance was given us 
that the wind would go down as we got farther south. On 
the contrary, the farther south we ran the more heavily the 
wind blew. There was one consolation — it was a fair wind, 
but as it increased, the huge waves came chasing us from 
behind, threatening all the while to overwhelm us. I^ot 
being able to move about much of the time, we sat or lay 
on deck watching the great seas as they towered above the 
stern, coming on with all their force, as if determined the 
next time to pounce upon us and wash us all from the deck ; 
but our ship never failed to obey the law of gravitation 
which gives the highest place to the lighter body, and just 



MACAO, SIFGAPOBE, AND PENANG. \^\ 

at tlie critical moment she would lift her stern gracefully 
and allow the swell to pass underneath. This she contin- 
ued to do for five days, the monsoon increasing all the 
while, and tossing us up and down most inconveniently. 

In the evening of the fifth day out, when we were with- 
in about two degrees of the equator, dark clouds were seen 
gathering in the west, which soon overspread the sky and 
the sea, the blackness of which was relieved only by fierce 
flashes of lightning. Presently the rain came down in a 
tropical deluge ; and while the elements were all in wild 
commotion, the engine suddenly stopped, the ship swung 
round into the trough of the sea as helj^less as a log, and 
then commenced that awful rolling of the vessel which is 
far more terrible than driving before or even facing a 
storm. The heat was too great for us to go below, and we 
preferred to remain on deck, sheltered only by an awning, 
and take the chances of the storm ; \mt as the ship rolled 
heavily from one side to the other, as if about to roll com- 
pletely over, we were thrown abouit or compelled to cling 
fast to whatever was within reach. Some of the passengers 
were overcome with terror, expecting by the next lurch of 
the ship to be pitched into the sea. One poor Jewess, who 
came on board with a fortune on her person in the shape 
of diamonds and emeralds, shrieked aloud and called upon 
God to save her. It was to all of us more or less a scene 
of terror, aggravated by the absolute blackness of darkness 
that surrounded us. As soon as the ship began to recover 
herself, a voice by my side commenced singing, 

' ' Tossed upon life's raging billows, 
Sweet it is, O Lord, to know 
Thou didst press a sailor's pillow. 

And canst feel a sailor's woe. 
Never slnmbering, never sleeping, 

Though the night be dark and drear ; 
Thou, tlie faithful, watch art keeping ; 
'All, all's well,' thy constant cheer." 

The moment that the engine stopped I comprehended 
the cause. I had learned from the captain that we were 
drawing near a rocky part of the China Sea, in which were 



192 AROUND THE WOULD. 

several islands, and in the thick darkness and descending- 
torrents of rain it was impossible to see tlie course ; we 
miglit at any moment strike a' rock or run ashore ; it was 
safer to let the ship drift than to drive her with the engine. 
The storm of rain became so severe that we were at length 
compelled to go below, but all night long the ship was start- 
ing and stopping, and when the morning came, instead of 
being to the west of Bintang Island, as we should have 
been, we had drifted with the currents thirty miles to the 
east. The morning light was very pleasant to the eyes, 
and so was the sight of Singapore, with its beautiful groves 
of palm, and its substantial buildings stretching along the 
shore for one or two miles. 

We did not at all regret to say farewell to the China 
Seas. Three times had we tried them, and found them al- 
waj's turbulent, although we had taken them at the best 
season of the year. Often, while tossing on the waves be- 
tween Hong Kong and Singapore, was I reminded of a voy- 
age made over the same sea by a beloved friend, Walter M. 
Lowrie, who subsequently perished by the hands of pirates 
near Shanghai. He came to China in 1842. On the 18th 
of June of that year he left Macao for Singapore in a sail- 
ing vessel, and, after being driven hither and thither by 
tempests for two months, the ship ]3ut in to Manilla. On 
the 18th of September he sailed again for Singapore, but 
on the 25th of the same month the ship struck a hidden 
rock far out at sea, and was wrecked. The crew and pas- 
sengers took to the boats, and after spending five days un- 
der a burning sun without shelter, and with little hope of 
seeing land, they at length reached the island of Luban. 
There he found a vessel bound for Hong Kong, in which 
he returned almost to the point from which he started, hav- 
ing been gone just four months on a fruitless voyage. Five 
years afterward, as he was on his way from Shanghai to 
Ningpo in a native boat, he was attacked by pirates and 
thrown into the sea. While struggling in the water, he cast 
the Bible, which he had kept in his liand, into the boat, and 



MACAO, SINGAPOSU, AND PENANG. ^^93 

then sank. This precious relic was saved and restored to 
his friends, but his body still sleeps in the sea. He was 
one of the noblest of that band who have devoted their 
lives to the service of Christ and his Church in the evan- 
gelization of China. 

A few miles northeast of Singapore we crossed the 180th 
meridian west or east of New York, being then precisely 
on the opposite side of the globe to our home. Neither 
did we fall from the deck of the ship, nor did the ship fall 
from the sea, nor did the sea fall off from the land, but all 
things continued to gravitate as at home. We were just 
twelve hours in time from the friends whom we had left 
behind ; it was midnight with us, but high noon with them. 
This might have been the proper time to drop a day in our 
reckoning; and right glad should we have been to drop 
four or five days, if we could have avoided the tossings of 
the sea. This part of the voyage over, we sailed at length 
on a bright, beautiful morning into the harbor of Singa- 
pore. 

It was a delightful sensation, after five days and nights 
of incessant tossing, to feel once more at rest, and still more 
dehghtf ul were our sensations when we stepped ashore and 
found ourselves in an earthly paradise, the most enchant- 
ing spot that I have looked upon in any latitude or in any 
clime. As I wandered among the groves of spice, and 
palm, and every form of tropical and Oriental vegetation, I 
caught myself continually repeating the words of the old 
Mogul inscription, " If there be a paradise on earth, it is 
this, it is this !" 

Singapore is situated on an island of the same name, 
just at the extremity of the Malacca peninsula. It is an 
English colony, having been ceded to Great Britain in 1824. 
Some one has explained the name as meaning " the place 
of lions," rather an extraordinary name for a place where 
lions never were known. The island once abounded in 
tigers, which are still occasionally met with. In former 
times, it is said, they carried off and ate one man a day on 



194 AROUND THE WORLD. 

an average. A resident of more than thirty years, who had 
made the languages of the East a study, informed me that 
the word Singapore means a place to touch at, a very ap- 
propriate name. It is, in reality, the touching-place for all 
steamers which pass eastward or westward, from whatever 
quarter they come. Constant communication is kept up 
with the rest of the world, and scarcely a day passes with- 
out a visit from one or more of the grand fleet of steamers 
which are driving sails from the Eastern waters as they 
have driven them from the Atlantic. Singapore is not an 
undesirable place for residence, being on the great high- 
road of the nations east and west. But its chief attrac- 
tions consist in its delightful climate and its rare produc- 
tions. Situated only one degree north of the equator, it 
enjoys perpetual summer, and the atmosphere being moist 
from the vicinity of the sea, and the frequent showers with 
which it is visited at all seasons, the heat is never oppress- 
ive, the thermometer seldom rising above 90°. I have be- 
fore me the meteorological record of an entire year, in 
which the greatest heat was 88° and the lowest 73°. In 
general attractiveness it is very similar to the island of 
Ceylon, just across the Indian Ocean, with this exception, 
that while in Ceylon, according to Bishop Heber, " only man 
is vile," in Singapore the horses are equally vile. On going 
ashore, we were met by the first crowd of hackmen that we 
had seen since leaving the Western continent, and they 
seemed, from their exorbitant demands, to be in correspond- 
ence with the fraternity in New York ; for when we came 
to settle accounts, they always had some plea on which the 
original demand was increased. The horses, too, were mere 
rats, scarcely able to draw an empty carriage. More than 
once, in ascending a slight hill, I was obliged to alight and 
assist them up, or leave the carriage and its other occupants 
in the interior of the island. But the island itself sur- 
passed, in the variety and richness of its vegetable growth, 
all that I had conceived of the natural grandeur of the 
tropics. 



MACAO. SINGAPORE, AND PUNANG. I95 

Before reacliing the harbor, we saw from the steamer, 
first with the glass and then with the naked eye, large plan- 
tations of banana, cocoanut, and other varieties of the palm, 
stretching along the coast for miles. The cocoanut grows 
here with great luxuriance, the fruit of enormous size, and 
the leaves attaining the length of twelve or fifteen feet. It 
is cultivated for the sake of the oil, which is used for illu- 
minating purposes. The bananas, although considered very 
iine, are not so large nor so highly flavored than those from 
the West Indies. I hesitate not to record the general re- 
mark, that the fruits of the East Indies, with very few ex- 
ceptions, are much less rich in flavor than those of the West. 
It is in spices of all kinds that the East has the superiority, 
and of these we had a fine specimen at Singapore. 

At the invitation of the proprietor, we took a morning 
walk into a grove of nutmegs occupying several acres. 
The tree grows to the height of about twenty-five or thirty 
feet, resembles a pear-tree in its general appearance, and 
bears a fruit about the size and shape of an ordinary 
Seckle pear. The grove was in full bearing. Every morn- 
ing a man walks through, carefully examining each tree to 
see if the fruit has opened, the cracking of the outer shell 
being an indication that the nutmeg is fully ripe. This 
opening of the shell reveals an inner case of the brightest 
vermilion, the ordinary mace of commerce ; and when this 
is removed the nutmeg is found inclosed in a third shell, 
much harder than the outer one. I gathered several speci- 
mens, preserving some of them in their original tri-fold 
envelopes. 

Mr. P. Yoakim, a wealthy Armenian merchant, who was 
our fellow-passenger from Singapore to Calcutta, and to 
whom I was indebted for much information in regard to 
his beautiful island home, has an extensive spice plantation 
a short drive from the town. It will abundantly repay 
any one who touches at Singapore, and has the time to 
make the excursion, and the gentlemanly proprietor will 
give him a hearty welcome. This plantation has on it 



196 AROUND THE WORLD. 

12,000 cocoanut-trees, 1500 nutmeg-trees, with ciunamoii, 
clove, and all kinds of spices. The clove grows in large 
clusters upon the extremities of the branches of a large 
tree, and was in season when we were at Singapore. Mr. 
Yoakim has an orchid house of great extent. 

The Rev. Mr. Keasbury, who has spent more than thirty 
years as a missionary at Singapore, and who, although not 
connected with any society, is still prosecuting his work 
vigorously — preaching, teaching, and superintending a 
printing establishment that is sending out among the va- 
rious classes of natives, and into other regions along the 
Malacca coast and among the islands, a knowledge of the 
Gospel, has reclaimed from the jungle, about two miles 
out of town, a small plantation, which yields all the fruits 
and spices of the tropics, with a profusion of shade, made 
more delightful by its fragrance. Among the trees and 
shriibs that I saw in his grounds were the following : pine- 
apple, cocoanut, bread-fruit, orange, mango, jack -fruit, 
mangostine, durian, custard-apple, coffee, chocolate, nut- 
meg, clove, cassia, etc., together with a large variety of 
shade and ornamental trees, among which was the banyan. 

The drive to Mr. Keasbury's was one of the most beauti- 
ful imaginable, the road being lined with bungalows and 
plantations laid out with exquisite taste, and adorned with 
all the luxuriance of tropical vegetation. One of the most 
conspicuous trees upon the island was the fan-palm ; not 
the palm from which fans are made, but a large tree hav- 
ing the symmetry and shape of a fan, as flat as if it had 
been placed in a press, although the circle of the leaves 
alone is at least twenty feet in diameter. The tree resem- 
bles the tail of a peacock when fully spread. This singu- 
lar tree is also called " the traveler's fountain," on account 
of the large amount of water secreted by it, which flows 
out when the tree is punctured, affording to the traveler 
an abundant supply. There is at Singapore a botanical 
garden or park, over the entrance to which is an inscrip- 
tion, " Open only to subscribers and strangers." It is well 



MACAO, SINGAPORE, AND PENANG. ^9^ 

laid out and well kept, with a large variety of trees and 
plants from different climes. Houqna's Garden, some 
miles from the town, is in the stiff Chinese style, distorting 
instead of cultivating nature — a process which neither in 
itself nor in its results has any attractions for my eye. One 
can not go amiss at Singapore in looking for the beautiful. 
The whole island is covered with what seems a spontaneous 
growth of all that is graceful and attractive in vegetation, 
and animal life is not wanting to enliven the scene. The 
jangle and forest abound in birds of the richest plumage, 
tribes of monkeys chatter among the branches of the trees, 
and occasionally a tiger makes his appearance when hard 
pressed for something to eat. 

The second morning of our stay we spent in company 
with Rev. Mr. Grant, a missionary representing the Plym- 
outh Brethren, and Major Malan, of the British army, sta- 
tioned here (a grandson of the departed patriarch of Gene- 
va, Dr. Cffisar Malan), in visiting the Gospel-house, the 
school for young girls established by Miss Cooke, now in 
England, which is supported chiefly by the work of the pu- 
pils. The embroidery is sold at a public annual fair, and 
is quite equal to that found at the Oriental bazars. 

Singapore was once a very important missionary station, 
not so much in its relation to the permanent population 
of the place as on account of its affording an opportunity 
to exert an influence upon China and other neighboring- 
countries. It was TTov (ttCj, a standing-place on which to 
operate while the Celestial Empire was closed against for- 
eigners. For a long period there has been a large Chinese 
population on the island, so large as really to afford a broad 
field for the missionary to work. If I am not mistaken, 
there were at one time as many as thirty missionaries here; 
but just as soon as the Chinese Empire was thrown open, 
the force moved on, and now the station is almost aban- 
doned. Mr. Keasbury and Mr. Grant are the only mission- 
aries whom I met. There are in the town of Singapore 
four Protestant churches, two of them Chinese ; four Ro- 



198 ^-^0 ^^D ^^-^ WORLD. 

man Catholic, of which two are also Chinese ; one Arme- 
nian ; one Jewish synagogue ; three Mohammedan mosques ; 
one Hindoo temple; one Chinese Buddhist temple, and 
some minor places of worship. 

For its size, Singapore has the most conglomerate popu- 
lation of any city in the world, almost every nation being 
represented. The variety in costimie and general appear- 
ance strikes the stranger at once. It was the more notice- 
able to us, coming from Japan and China, where the ordi- 
nary dress of the people is perfectly uniform, a dull blue 
cotton. The wharf, as we were leaving, was one of the 
gayest scenes that we have met with. A large crowd, in 
all the colors of the rainbow, occupied the bund. There 
were Jews and Jewesses elegantly dressed and glittering 
with jewels ; Armenians, the ladies fine-looking and splen ■ 
didly dressed ; Mohammedans with large red turbans ; 
Bengalese ; Malays in all sorts of bright colors, and many 
of them in plain dark color, that in which they were born ; 
then there were English, and French, and other Europeans 
in their own national costumes. Besides the j)eople, there 
was a grand display of gay-colored birds for sale — parrots 
in green, crimson, scarlet, yellow, white, etc. While we 
were waiting for the steamer to be off, boys, who seem to 
belong to some amphibious tribe, amused the passengers 
by diving from boats for pieces of money thrown into the 
water, invariably catching them before they reached the 
bottom, which was six or eight fathoms below. In the 
midst of this variegated scene the order was given, and we 
were once more upon the sea. 

We entered the Straits of Malacca, and had a quiet and 
pleasant voyage to Penang, which we reached early on the 
morning of the second day. As it was Saturday, the Jews 
and Jewesses on board had a long discussion in regard to 
the propriety of going ashore to spend the day, as it was 
their Sabbath. Some of them were really conscientious, 
but others were disposed to treat the question in a very 
Rabbinical way. One Jew maintained that they might go 



MACAO, SINGAPORE, AND PENANG. 199 

ashore, but not go out in carriages, as that would be con- 
trary to the command, '''■Seven days shalt thou labor," etc., 
this being the form in which he repeated it, and according 
to which he had probably been most accustomed to observe 
the day. Another thought it right to ride on an elephant 
on the Sabbath, but not in a carriage. The result of the 
discussion was that some went on shore and spent the day 
as they chose, while others, more conscientious, remained 
on board and played cards for money. 

Having a note of introduction to the Kev. Mr. Macdon- 
ald, an Independent missionary at Penang^ I went ashore 
to p:fesent it. Calling at the bungalow of the chief com- 
missioner of police to make some inquiry, we were very 
courteously received. He immediately ordered his car- 
riage and sent an officer to take us to the residence of the 
missionary, where we spent the morning in very pleasant 
intercourse with those whom we had met as strangers. It 
wks truly delightful to enjoy their Christian society on this 
other side of the world, and as pleasant to them, they as- 
sured us, to have a call from travelers, who felt an interest 
in them and in their work for the Master's sake. Mr. 
Macdonald is the only missionary now at Penang, and his 
labors are distributed among the various races which com-^ 
pose the population of the town, among which, very strange- 
ly, the Chinese appear to be the most numerous. They oc- 
cupy a separate portion of the city, forming a distinct com- 
munity. The Celestials, indeed, are scattered through all 
the cities east of India. Even Calcutta has a large Chinese 
population. They are possessed of great enterprise, and, 
the population of China being so dense, the motive to em- 
igration is strong. A few years since a fearful riot oc- 
curred among the Chinese at Penang, growing out of some 
of their clannish ideas. The whole community became in- 
volved in it, and it was not quelled until nearly a thousand 
lives were lost. 

As our steamer was to lie all day at Penang, Mr. Mac- 
donald proposed a drive through the town and into the 



200 AROUND THE WORLD. 

coimtiy, a proposition wliich we were, nothing loth to ac- 
cept. The city itself is even more beautiful, at least some 
portions of it, than Singapore, and the country has the 
same luxuriant, tropical appearance, abounding in cocoanut 
groves, the cocoanut and betelnut being among the chief 
productions. During our drive we called upon a wealthy 
Mohammedan, Mahomet ISToordin, the head of the Klings, 
who owns a large part of the native city of Penang. It 
was just after noon, and as we drove up to the doorway 
the servant said his master was asleep, and " no man was 
so brave as to disturb him between the hours of twelve and 
three." We insisted on his announcing our arrival, but he 
was resolute until I produced my card, and Mr. Macdon- 
ald, writing his own name on it, told him to take it to his 
master. 

We waited a few moments, expecting him to return with- 
out having presented it, but some one had been brave enough 
to present the card, and we were shown into the private 
rooms of the chief, where he received us not only with cor- 
diality, but with Oriental flattery. He expressed great de- 
light at seeing us, and when we apologized for having dis- 
turbed his slumbers, he said " it made him very much hap- 
py to have a visit from us, but that if the lieutenant gov- 
ernor had called at that hour he would not have received 
him." He then led us into his public reception-room and 
ordered cheroots and wine, of which, being a Mohammed- 
an, he could not partake, but he had it placed before us, 
each glass on an elegantly-chased silver salver. Mr. Mac- 
donald at first declined to take wine, saying, " I am very 
much like the Mohammedans in one respect — I take very 
little wine." Mahomet ISToordin immediately retorted with 
a hearty laugh at his own wit, "And I am very much like 
the Christians — I drink plenty of brandy and water." He 
talked very intelligently about America and of different 
Europeans whom he had met at Penang. He asked how 
long we were expecting to stay, and said if I would come 
to Penang and live he would give me a bungalow, with ev- 



IIAC'AO, SINOAPOBE, AND PENAKG. 201 

ery thing that could make us comfortable, and that if I 
would stay for only a week he would have a house made 
ready for us, and that his horses and carriages should be 
at my command, all of which generous offers I was obliged 
to decline. 

The old gentleman (for he was quite advanced in years) 
took us around his extensive house, pointed out one large 
building after another which he had gradually added to his 
home, and then pointing to one small house in the centre, 
in which he had first received us, a low and comparatively 
mean-looking building, said, " That was my father's house." 
Although he had added house to house, he still retained the 
paternal roof for his own home. 

A mountain lying back of the city affords a magnificent 
view of the town, the country around it, and of the sea ; 
but it requires the greater part of a day to make the as- 
cent, and we had not time for the excursion. Besides, a 
heavy rain came on, in the midst of which we were obliged 
to make our way back to the steamer in an open boat, the 
boatmen embracing the occasion to demand an exorbitant 
fare. Soon after we had reached the steamer the wind in- 
creased, and, as the tide was running with great velocity, it 
was with immense difiiculty that some of the passengers 
reached the steamer and got on board. 

These tropical regions are as prolific of animal life as of 
vegetable. The most venomous snakes are quite at home 
in all these beautiful places, and they do not disdain an in- 
viting buno-alow for a residence. As we were drivinor 
through the city of Penang a house was pointed out to me 
in which the proprietor found, on coming home one clay, 
two boa constrictors occupying his parlor and waiting to 
give him a warm embrace ; but he declined the compli- 
ment, and chose to have them put out of the way. 

We resumed our sail through the Straits of Malacca. On 
the third day out from Penang we passed a chain of islands 
which crop out occasionally from the sea, evidently a con- 
tinuation into the ocean of the mountains of Burmah. This 



202 AROUND THE WORLD. 

chain runs down to the island of Sumatra, and separates the 
Andaman Sea and the Gulf of Martaban from the Bay of 
Bengal, which we presently entered. The Andaman Isl- 
ands are a penal settlement, to which the mutineers from 
India were sent to the nmnber of several thousands. Some 
portions of the islands are said to be inhabited by cannibals, 
into whose hands and jaws some of the mutineers fell in 
making an attempt at escape. 

The Bay of Bengal was like a mirror, and scarcely was 
the dying swell from a wave to be seen. The air was de- 
lightfully warm, and in the calmness which settled down 
over the sea great numbers of flying fish, tempted from 
their native element to try their wings in a lighter atmos- 
phere, skimmed along the surface in flocks. Immense sea- 
turtles also came to the surface to sun themselves, and were 
not roused from their slumbers until we were just upon 
them. These waters are inhabited by snakes which some- 
times reach a large size, very inconveniently making their 
way into cabin windows, or on deck when a stray rope 
liangs over the side by which they can work their way on 
board. We saw them, but happily had no visit from them 
on board. Some of our passengers took the precaution to 
close their ports, lest they should find in their cabins these 
unwelcome visitors. 

While sailing up this sea we were often tantalized like 
the travelers in the desert, only they are deceived by what 
appears to be water, while we had the promise of land which 
never came in sight. I had never before seen a marine 
mirage, but for days the state of the atmosphere was such 
that we seemed to be approaching shores which loomed up 
in the distance. As we sailed on and on, the shores were 
ever as far off as at first, and ever as near, and finally they 
would fade away into air. 

As we w^ere drawing near the mouth of the Hoogly we 
began to meet the East Indiamen, homeward bound. Their 
occupation will soon be gone, now" that steam is monopoliz- 
ing not only the passenger, but the carr^ang trade of the 



CALCUTTA. 203 

ocean, especially if the Suez Canal should prove a success ; 
but with all the speed and the modern appliances for lux- 
ury on the steamers of the present day, I do not doubt that 
there was more of comfort in some of the large East India 
ships which made the voyage around the Cape. The great 
drawback to comfort was the length of the voyage, bnt even 
this enabled those who had weak stomachs to become ac- 
customed to the sea, and as " hanging is nothing when one 
gets used to it," so it is of the ceaseless rolling of the sea. 



CALCUTTA. 

Calcutta is about a hundred miles from the mouth of 
the Hoogly, one of the outlets of the Ganges. The greater 
part of the distance up from the sea the banks of the river 
are a wild jungle, through which are scattered, sometimes 
in groves, the cocoanut and other palms, the whole vegeta- 
tion having a strictly Oriental aspect. The banks of the 
stream are as flat as those of the Lower Mississippi. Near 
the mouth of the Hoogly stands a monument, sad as a me- 
morial, and strikingly suggestive of adventures which are 
still to be met with in all parts of India. It marks the 
spot where a young lady once disappeared in the grasp of 
a tiger. A vessel from home was detained by the tide, and 
a number of passengers concluded to go ashore and while 
away the time by a stroll among the palms. One of the 
party strayed a little from the rest, when a scream was 
heard ; they ran to her assistance, but only in time to see 
her carried oif by one of the tigers that still infest the jun- 
gles, even in the vicinity of the towns. 

As we approached the city of palaces, the signs of culti- 
vation, and at length of Eastern wealth, became more fre- 
quent. For several miles the river on either hand was 



204 



AROUND THE WORLD: 




ENTKANOE TO THE IIOOGLY. 



lined with rich plantations and costly residences. The 
palms, acacias, and other tropical trees were as fresh and 
vigorous as if it w^ere not the third day of winter. About 
two miles below Calcutta, among many of the choice trees 
of the tropics, stands one of the finest specimens of the 
banyan tree in all India. I do not know the number of 
its trunks, but one of these trees is described as having 
three hundred and fifty large branches that have shot down 
and become rooted, forming three hundred and fifty large 
trees, and more than three thousand smaller ones, making 
from one tree, still joined together by its branches, an im- 
mense grove. 

On the opposite shore is the palace of the ex-King of 
Oude, wdio was dethroned by the East India Company and 



CALCUTTA. 205 

brought to Calcutta as a sort of prisoner of state. He was 
allowed to retain a large portion of his wealth, and still has 
a princely, if not a royal revenue. His buildings are very 
beautiful, extending a long distance upon the river's bank. 
Among them was a temple, the dome of which was burn- 
ished gold, dazzling the eyes in the bright sunlight. We 
were detained several hours opposite his grounds waiting 
for orders from the Custom-house, and had abundance of 
time to study all the beauties of the place. ISTothiug in the 
ample grounds of the dethroned monarch attracted my at- 
tention like a small but beautiful kiosk which stood di- 
rectly upon the river's bank. It was about twelve or fif- 
teen feet square, with a dome-shaped roof ; its sides were 
open, but grated w^ith iron bars, and within was a royal 
Bengal tiger pacing up and down in all his majesty. I do 
not know whether the royal owner of the grounds designed 
this as a satire upon the power which had dethroned him 
and taken possession of his territory, but if so, it was, in- 
deed, a biting satire. 

The order from the Custom-house came at length, and 
we steamed up to the anchorage directly opposite Fort Wil- 
liam, which stands upon a vast open plain, known as the 
Maidan, quite to the south of the city. As we approached 
the ghaut, or landing-place, we found gathered on the shore 
one of the most curious crowds that we ever beheld. All 
nations and all costumes appeared to be represented, the 
crimson garments of the Bengalese and Hindoo women pre- 
dominating, while turbaned, and gowned, and trowsered 
men and women of all complexions and styles of dress 
filled up the picture. Awaiting us was a large fleet of 
native boats, manned by the most voracious cormorants 
that we have met with in any part of the w^orld. Their 
shoutings and fightings, one with another, to secure the 
landing of our persons and our baggage (we were not fifty 
yards from the shore), would have silenced the builders of 
the towers of Babel. It became necessary for us to shout 
and fight as vigorously as they, in order to prevent our bag- 



206 AROUND THE WORLD. 

gage from being carried off into a score of separate boats ; 
but at length we were landed. 

Then came another tuff of war. Not one of the boat- 
men would carry the baggage up the bank to the gharries 
or carriages, about fifty feet distant, and the same process 
of fighting and shouting was renewed, the army of the 
Philistines in the mean while having increased as we 
reached the shore. I steadfastly refused, in the most ve- 
hement Orientalisms I could command, to pay one of them 
a single copper pie until I saw every thing on the gharries, 
by which time the number of clamorous creditors had still 
farther multiplied, and each one demanded enough for all, 
whether he had touched our baggage or not, Never be- 
fore or since have I found it so hard to pay an honest debt, 
only because it was impossible to select from a crowd of 
rapacious Hindoos, who all looked as much alike as if they 
were the same man, those to whom the debt was actually 
due. At length, seeing that all was ready, I selected the 
one who was most violent in his demonstrations, handed 
him what I thought was right, motioned to the rest to get 
tlieir dues from him, and, leaving him to be torn in pieces 
by the crowd, sprang into the gharry and was off for the 
hotel. I never learned whether the man survived the com- 
bined charge, but I could do no better. The longer I par- 
leyed in English, the larger and more imperious the crowd 
of Hindoos became, and there was neither native nor En- 
glish police to whom I could appeal. 

Arrived at Spence's Hotel, we were provided with rooms 
after stipulating to give them up for the Duke of Edin- 
burg and suite, who had engaged them for the following 
week. They were immense quarters. Oriental in style and 
accommodations. We were abundantly supplied with serv- 
ants — four, and sometimes five, who seemed gifted with 
omnipresence, were always at hand to wait on two of us. 
With their dusky forms clothed from head to foot in white ; 
moving about without shoes, noiselessly, and without ut- 
tering a word, they were like so many lost spirits, or like 



CALCUTTA. 207 

Hindoos in grave - clothes. When waiting on us at our 
table they wore white muslin hats, with immense brims 
covered, with the same material, and, excepting that they 
were clothed in white instead of drab, we should have 
fancied ourselves served by the spirits of some of the fol- 
lowers of George Fox or William Penn. As the shades 
of night came on, and we grew anxious to try the effect of 
sleeping on shore, we found it next to impossible to relieve 
ourselves of their presence. We signified to them, as well 
as we could, that their duties for the day were over, and 
that we were about to retire. We motioned them out of 
our quarters, and fancied that we had seen the last of 
them for the night, but scarcely had we turned around 
when the same dark ghosts in white stood before us. They 
had stolen, without a sound, through another door into the 
room, and were waiting for our orders, which were that 
they should disappear, and at length they did. 

We were enjoying our first sleep on land, after many 
days and nights of tossing on the China Sea and the Bay 
of Bengal, when, just after midnight, we were roused by 
the most hideous screams that ever assailed our ears. The 
cries were not altogether human ; they were inhuman, in- 
fernal. It seemed as if a legion of demons had broken 
loose from their confinement, with a commission to drive 
sleep from the pillows of Calcutta. As often as we at- 
tempted to quiet ourselves to rest, the same shrieks would 
startle us from our incipient dreams, until we gave up in 
despair, if not in terror. We could not form a conception 
of the nature of the beings from which they proceeded. 
In the morning we learned that it was the nightly sere- 
nade of jackals, which have the run of the streets after 
midnight, and which, if not protected by law, are perfect- 
ly safe from all harm, on account of the valuable service 
they render as public scavengers. They are quite harm- 
less themselves, excepting their cries, which rob all new 
comers of sleep. They are never seen by day, skulking 
away into sewers and dark recesses, where they lie until 



208 AROUND THE WOULD. 

they are summoned to make their round of the city. ISTor 
was it in Calcutta alone that Ave heard them, but in every 
city in India that we visited during the winter, with the 
single exception of Bombay. Their cries, especially when 
a whole pack join together, approximate so near to the hu- 
man, that I have heard it interpreted thus : A large pack 
of jackals start upon their nightly round in search of their 
appropriate food. Suddenly one in advance of the rest 
breaks out into a shrill, hideous scream, " Here's a dead 
Plindoo." The whole pack immediately scream, " Where '^ 
where? where?" A score of the ghouls answer with a 
short, shrill bark, " Here ! here ! here !" and then the whole 
crowd of jackals send up, in the otherwise still night, a 
howl over their discovery that may be heard for miles. 
This was the serenade that awakened us, and scarcely a 
night that we were in the country did they fail to send a 
thrill of horror through our souls. 

The jackals are the night-scavengers of Calcutta. Those 
of the day are the crows, the kites, and the adjutants. 
The crows, as in all parts of India that I have visited, 
swarm throughout the city by myriads, keeping up an in- 
cessant " caw, caw, caw." They spend the night quietly 
on the trees, not much less than a thousand sometimes se- 
lecting a single tree, and taking an hour of fighting and 
shouting in concert before they become fairly settled for 
the night. Even after they have become quiet, and you 
imagine that at last their noise is over for the day, some 
dispute arises among them, and the whole thousand start 
up from the tree in violent altercation, and again go 
through the same course of fighting before they are settled 
again. Nor are they satisfied with the refuse of the city 
for a living ; they come boldly into the open windows and 
lay their beaks upon any food that is within reach. The 
first morning that we were in Calcutta our breakfast had 
been set in the anteroom, but before we could lay claim 
to it the crows had entered, and, supposing it was intended 
for them, had made way with a good share of it. Once 



CALCUTTA. 209 

thej took it before our very eyes, without so much as say- 
ing " By your leave." The kites, a species of large hawk, 
are not so numerous, but they are numbered by thousands, 
or tens of thousands, and are continually sailing over tlie 
city or along the streets, excepting when they see some 
tempting provisions, in which case they do not hesitate 
to swoop down and bear it off, even from the midst of a 
crowd of pedestrians or carriages. They have the free- 
dom of the city in common with the crows. The adju- 
tant, an immense stork, standing, in his stockings, as high 
as a man, belongs to the same army, and enjoys the same 
freedom, but he is a gentleman, carrying himself with as 
much dignity in his daily walks as if he were a major 
general instead of a mere adjutant, and never intruding 
where he does not belong. Much of the time he stands 
on one leg, with his neck drawn down into his body and 
his immense visor closed, in a meditative mood, and so per- 
fectly motionless that you might easily mistake him for a 
bronze statue. The snakes form a part of his rations. The 
residents of Calcutta seem as unconscious of the existence 
of the crows, the kites, and the adjutants, and even of the 
jackals, as if such specimens in natural history were never 
heard of within a thousand miles of the city. 

Calcutta may be called the European capital of Asia. 
It has been the seat of British empire for more than a cen- 
tury, and the centre of British influence for the whole East. 
Its commercial supremacy is probably well-nigh ended since 
steam and the opening of the Suez Canal have changed the 
route of commerce between Europe and the East. Bom- 
bay is now the port of India, as Calcutta is thrown more 
than ever off the great highway to China. But no other 
city will ever have such a combination of Oriental and Oc- 
cidental grandeur as the " City of Palaces," the name it 
bears in the East. The name is not unmerited, although 
we do not find either the architectural beauty of the West, 
or the lavish expenditure of the old dynasties of the East. 
It was founded by the East India Companv near the close 

O 



210 AROUND THE WORLD. 

of the seventeenth century, on the site of a small village 
called Kali-kutta (the village of the Goddess Kali), from 
which the present name of the city is derived. A temple 
of the goddess, south of the city, is still frequented by mul- 
titudes of devotees at the period of the annual worship. 
The official name of the city, from which public documents, 
I believe, are dated even to the present day, although exe- 
cuted at the Government House a mile distant, is Fort Wil- 
liam. The fort was erected in the reign of William III. 
of England, and named from this sovereign. It is an ex- 
tensive fortress, standing in the midst of the Maidan, a vast 
open plain extending more than two miles up and down 
the Hoogly, south of the city. The northern portion of the 
Maidan, known as the Esplanade, is occupied by the gov- 
ernment buildings, which front upon a well-kept park 
known as the Eden Gardens. The viceroy's palace occu- 
pies the most conspicuous site, and, although possessing no 
great architectural beauty, is an imposing pile. 

The portion of the Maidan bordering on the river for a 
mile below the Government House is the great fashionable 
drive of Calcutta, answering to the Pi'ater of Vienna, or 
Rotton Eow in Hyde Park. Every evening, just before 
sunset, when the heat of the day has passed, all Calcutta 
turns out for an hour's drive up and down the strand. The 
sight is one of the gayest to be seen in the suburbs of any 
city, and one of the most peculiar. Nowhere in the East 
is there any thing to equal it, and nowhere in the West any 
thing like it. Europeans with gay equipages, from the vice- 
roy's scarlet and gold, with his Sepoy outriders, down to the 
unpretending gharry, move on in a steady line, three or four 
abreast, until night comes on. ISTotwithstanding the occu- 
pants of the carriages are chiefly Europeans, the scene is 
decidedly Oriental. Coachmen and footmen, some of them 
splendid specimens of the various tribes of India, are all 
in Eastern costume, the colors and style of which are as 
varied as the races of Hindostan. The wealthy Baboos 
have their place in the grand procession, and when we 



CALCUTTA. 211 

were in Calcutta there was a grand gathering of Eajahs 
and native princes from all j)arts of India, who had come 
down to meet the Duke of Edinburg and take part in the 
durbar at Government House. One who would study Ori- 
ental life should not fail to be on the strand at Calcutta an 
hour before sunset. 

The residences of the merchants, and those connected 
with the civil and military ser\dce, are east of the Maidan, 
the whole of this part of Calcutta being known as Chow- 
ringee. The d'wellings, many of which may in truth be 
called palaces, though not architectm-ally beautiful, are iso- 
lated, standing in the midst of squares, and surrounded by 
a profusion of the ornamental trees and shrubs of India. 
The suburbs of the city toward the south, in the du'ection 
of the palace and grounds of the ex-King of Oade, stretch 
out into the region of the palms, acacias, mango, bamboo, 
and peepul trees, which grow with great luxuriance of foli- 
age. In tropical countries leaves often take the place of 
branches. The stately palm, the glory of the tropics, is as 
destitute of limbs as the mast of a ship, but a single leaf is 
fifteen or twenty feet in length, and each tree is crowned 
with a drooping mass. Such a tree has no need of branch- 
es. In the palm-clad suburbs of Calcutta stands the coun- 
try house of Warren Hastings, where that brilliant though 
erring statesman, the governor general of India, maintained 
a splendid hospitality. The place is now among the his- 
toric scenes of the East ; but one can not recall the events 
connected with his rule and conquests, even in the midst 
of the prosperity of India, without a long-drawn sigh. 

There are few public buildings of much note. The Gov- 
ernment House, built by the Marquis of Wellesley, and the 
new government offices on the Esplanade, are the most im- 
posing. The post-office is a large and fine building, erect- 
ed in part on the site of one more memorable in history 
than any other within the limits of the city or in this part 
of India. It is the " Black Hole of Calcutta." In the year 
1756 Fort William was taken by Surajah Dowlah, Nabob 



212 AROUND THE WORLD. 

of Bengal, a feeble gamson being left to defend it after 
the governor and others had escaped to the ships. The pris- 
oners, 146 in number, were thrust into a room only eighteen 
feet square, with two small, obstructed windows, where, in 
the intense heat of a Calcutta night, on the 18th of June, 
they were shut up without water or any means of relief. 
With heat, and thirst, and suffocation, many of them became 
maddened, and the horrors of that night never can be de- 
picted. Bribes, and prayers, and the raging of despair were 
all ineffectual to move the hearts of the guard. In vain 
the prisoners, in the agonies of thirst and of suffocation, 
entreated to have the nabob informed of their condition ; 
they were told that he was asleep, and could not be dis- 
turbed. In the morning twenty-three ghastly forms had 
just life enough left to crawl from the room when it was 
opened; the rest, 123, were piled upon the floor, putrid 
corpses. No scene connected with Calcutta is more indeli- 
bly graven on the memory of the world than this ; but all 
traces of it are obliterated from the spot by the erection of 
new and stately buildings. 

The new Cathedral, the seat of the bishopric which has 
been held by such apostolic names as those of Heber and 
Wilson, is a fine building, it may be called elegant, finished 
as it is with such admirable taste and in such beauty. It is 
already becoming filled with monumental marbles, among 
which the statue of Bishop Heber is the most striking. 
There are several fine churches, English and Scotch. The 
college buildings of the Free Church, and the Scotch Kirk, 
are worthy of note for their extent, if not for their beauty. 
The Bishop's College, on the right bank of the Hoogly, 
two miles below the city, makes more pretension to taste 
and elegance. 

The native and the European quarters of the town are 
distinct, the former having N&rj narrow streets and more or 
less of squalor in its whole extent, but the portion occupied 
by foreigners (Europeans have no native-born descendants 
of pure blood in India) is laid out upon a broad scale, and 
built up with appropriate magnificence. 



CALCUTTA. 213 

The city is supplied with water from immense tanks, res- 
ervoirs of one or two hmidred feet square sunk into the 
ground, but left entirely open. The natives walk down into 
them, bathe their bodies and wash their clothes, and then 
fill their jars or goatskins with the water for drinking and 
other domestic use. This is a specimen of native cleanli- 
ness.* 

The streets are watered by a truly Oriental method. 
Each waterman has, instead of a cart, a goatskin taken oft 
entire, and forming an immense bottle, left open at the 
neck. This is suspended by a strap over the shoulders of 
the coolie, who seizes the neck with one hand, and, as he 
walks along, deftly throws the water hither and thither. 
Large numbers of these coolies are kept constantly em- 
ployed spirting the streets, which are as well watered by this 
method as by our own. 

Of the institutions of Calcutta, one of the first that claim- 

* The following, from an India paper, is a specimen of Hindoo metaphys- 
ics, and also of the stress that is laid upon ceremonial uncleanness above act- 
ual filth. 

' ' At the last meeting of the Sanatana-Dharma Rakshami Sabha, the presi- 
dent, Rajah Kali Krishna Deo Bahadoor, read an opinion on the water sup- 
plied to the Calcutta residents from the municipal water-works. He says 
that the water, being destitute of the sanctity of the Ganges, can not be used 
for religious purposes, but can be employed for drinking or domestic use with- 
out prejudice to caste. Rice, milk, turmeric, and other things become pure by 
boiling, and can be used by virtue of the authority that says that edible arti- 
cles become purified by purchase. The water-rate may be considered in the 
light of value paid, and the water become drinkable. Besides, it is written 
in the Satatapa vachana that articles prepared in a cow- shed by a shopman 
or by a machine, though not purified, are not considered unclean ; also that 
fluid, as in a running stream, is considered pure. The Shruti says that health 
is most important, and that religion comes next ; and as water is calledju'a- 
na, or life-giver, and as good, pure water preserves health, the fluid can be 
used without detriment to caste. The great bulk of water is also a test of 
purity in the same way, as a number of persons in a boat does not affect pu- 
rity. The president farther states that he visited the water-works in compa- 
ny with several respectable Hindoos, and examined the machinery, and found 
that India-rubber, and not leather, as was supposed, is used in certain parts of 
the machine ; cocoanut oil is used to lubricate the works, and that no forbid- 
den substance is used in connection with the pumps. He concludes by sub- 
mitting to the other members of the Sabha his opinion that the water is 
wholesome, and that it would be unwise to remain in doubt and sustain loss 
by not using the same. " 



214 ABOUND THE WORLD. 

ed a visit was Dr. Duff's College, as the great Free Chnrcli 
of Scotland Institution is called. Although it is many 
years since Dr. Duff was compelled to leave India by the 
failure of his health, his indomitable energy and ardent 
spirit having worn out his comparatively feeble frame in 
that trying climate, his name still adheres to the college 
which he founded and brought to a high state of prosperi- 
ty. He came to India in 1830, and began his educational 
work with a class of five scholars, which, in a few days, in- 
creased to more than a hundred. It soon became neces- 
sary to have permanent accommodations for those who 
were coming in such numbers to receive instruction in 
Western science, wliich is quite as different from Oriental 
science as the fact that the earth revolves around the sun 
is in advance of the idea that the sun revolves around the 
earth, or that the earth stands on a tortoise. A site for a 
college was selected on Cornwallis Square, one of the 
pleasantest quarters of the city, extensive buildings w^ere 
erected, a corps of teachers was supplied by the Church at 
home, and as many as eight hundred scholars were going 
through a course of instruction. 

Wlien the institution had reached this advanced stage, 
the disruption took place in the Church of, Scotland, and 
the Free Church was organized. The result was that the 
missionaries, to a man, decided to go with the Free Church. 
They followed the example of the Free Church ministers 
at home, wdio gave up churches and manses, and began 
their work anew. They abandoned the mission property, 
and every thing connected with the college, to lay another 
foundation. It was but a few years before the new col- 
lege numbered nearly fourteen hundred pupils, while the 
old, which had, in the mean time, been supplied with fresh 
men from the Kirk of Scotland, had nearly as many. The 
number has fallen off considerably within the last few 
years, owing perhaps to the founding of other schools by 
the government and by private munificence. These insti- 
tutions are open to students of all religions, and the mass 



CALCUTTA. 215 

of them are Hindoos or Mohammedans. Only in rare in- 
stances have they renounced the faith of their fathers, 
while fewer still have become real Christians. 

It is not the desire to become acquainted with Christian 
truth, much less to become Christians, that induces so many 
youth to crowd these foreign seminaries of learning. They 
are anxious to become qualiiied to fill the various lucrative 
posts which, in connection with the civil service, and the 
commerce and business of the country, are open to the na- 
tives. This is the great stimulus to study, and a successful 
course and an honorable graduation in the missionary, as 
well as in the government colleges, is usually a passport to 
a good situation. But this army of educated men may yet 
be brought into the Church of Christ, in that great relig- 
ious revolution that is to pass over India, the promise of 
which we have in the Word of God, and the signs of which 
are to be seen all over the land. 

The Bishop's College, occupying a fine Gothic building, 
beautifully situated on the botanic garden or park, on the 
banks of the Hoogly, two or three miles below the city, has 
a more limited class of students. It was founded by Bish- 
op Middleton in 1820 for the purpose of training up, un- 
der the discipline of the Church of England, a corps of 
preachers and teachers, to be employed by that Church in 
disseminating the truths of the Gospel in India. The 
number of students is small, but the arrangements for their 
education in the languages of the East, and in general liter- 
ature and science, are very extensive. 

Besides the institutions I have named, there are several 
others of a high order. Among these are Doveton College, 
founded, I believe, by a man whose name it bears ; the 
Martiniere, founded by General Martin, who amassed a 
large fortune in the East, and who established a college 
at Lucknow; the Sanscrit College; the ITundu College; 
the Mohammedan, etc. There is also a medical college, 
with a large corps of able- professors, at the iiead of which 
is Dr. Joseph Fayrer, a distinguished surgeon of the British 



216 AROUND THE WOELD. 

army, who was at Lucknow during the memorable siege, 
and in whose arms the commanding officer, Sir Henry Law- 
rence, breathed his last. A large hospital, which I visited 
in company with Mr. Duff, an eminent merchant of Bom- 
bay, and son of the Rev. Dr. Duff, is under the charge of 
this faculty. Dr. Fayrer has been engaged, by a series of 
experiments upon animals, in endeavoring to discover an 
antidote to the venom of the snakes that al)ound in India, 
by which thousands of lives are lost annually, but thus fai- 
without success. 

The Asiatic Society, located at Calcutta, was originated 
and established by that eminent scholar and Christian, Sir 
William Jones, who went out to India in 1783. Having 
been appointed to the bench of the Supreme Court of Ben- 
gal, he devoted himself with intense ardor to the study of 
the languages of the East as the means of fitting himself 
for usefulness in India. He is said to have acquired in the 
course of his life twenty-eight different languages, and to 
have become familiar with the literature of each. It was 
he who gave the noble testimony to tlie Bible, all the more 
weighty because coming from one whose professional pur- 
suits were not theological, and who was also so well quali- 
fied by his eminent learning to bear such testimony : " I 
have carefully and regularly perused the Scriptures, and 
am of opinion that this volume, independent of its divine 
origin, contains more sublimity, purer morality, more im- 
portant history, and finer strains of eloquence than can be 
collected from all other books, in whatever language they 
may be written." The Asiatic Society, which he founded, 
and of which Warren Hastings was the first president, was 
formed for the purpose of preserving the history and the 
memorials of India and the East generally. It has now an 
immense collection of volumes, and manuscripts, and speci- 
mens in natural history, and relics of all sorts. The large 
building in which they have been kept was long since over- 
flowing, so that it was found necessary to store the addi- 
tions elsewhere. An extensive range of buildings on the 



CALCUTTA. 217 

Chowringee Road was approaching completion when I left 
Calcutta, and when it is opened it will be one of the most 
interesting museums in the world. I made the acquaint- 
ance of the scholarly superintendent, who expressed an 
earnest desire to establish some system of exchanges with 
similar institutions in this Western world. 

Excepting in what is known as the Zenana Mission, the 
Americans are not represented among the institutions of 
Calcutta ; but that work is one of great importance, and in 
India is absolutely essential as the complement of Christian 
missions. It is not altogether new, but in its specific form 
was undertaken only ten years since by the " Woman's 
Union Missionary Society of America for Heathen Lands," 
whose head-quarters in India are at Calcutta, under the 
superintendence of Miss Hook, a lady of rare culture and 
refinement, and of great energy of character. Their field 
of operation is the zenanas, the homes of the women of 
India. Of course I was not able personally to observe the 
prosecution of this work, but I became familiar with its 
character and prospects, and was happy to learn that it is 
full of promise. The ladies of the mission, who go out 
daily among the zenanas, are cordially received, and many 
of the wealthy natives express an earnest desire that their 
mves may be instructed. 

There is no spot in India more sacred in the eyes of the 
Christian world than Serampore, beautifully situated on a 
bend of the Hoogly, about fifteen miles from the city of 
Calcutta. Every one who is at all familiar with the his- 
tory of missions in the East knows how intimately this place 
is associated with the names of the earliest and some of the 
best men that have gone out to preach the Gospel in Asiatic 
countries. In the beginning of the present century it was 
the cave in which the prophets were hid when they were 
forbidden to preach in British India. Being a Danish pos- 
session, it was not under the control of the East India Com- 
pany, and here Carey and Ward set themselves down to 
study the languages of the East. Here they planted their 



218 ABOUND THE WORLD. 

printing-presses, and from this spot they sent forth millions 
of pages of Christian truth into all parts of Asia and the 
Islands of the Sea. Here, too, the apostle Jndson, several 
years later, f onnd a temporary refuge when he was forbid- 
den to land at Calcutta, as if he and his companions from 
America had conspired against the peace of the country. 

The history of Carey and his labors is known the world 
over. He was born in a small interior town in England. 
His parents, being poor, apprenticed him at the age of four- 
teen to a shoemaker, whose trade he seems never to have 
mastered ; for, in after years, when dining at the governor 
general's in India, as he overheard some supercilious En- 
glishmen speak of him as a shoemaker, he turned and cor- 
rected him, saying he was only a cobbler. (On his death- 
bed he was ministered to by the wife of the Governor Gen- 
eral of India, and the Bishop of Calcutta came to ask his 
dying blessing.) While learning his trade in England, he 
indulged his thirst for knowledge by a course of reading, 
and at length turned his attention to languages, and en- 
larged his field of study, until he became a well-read Bib- 
lical scholar, and at length was licensed to preach the Gos- 
pel in the Baptist connection. In reading the accounts of 
Cook's voyages around the world he was deeply moved in 
heart toward the heathen, and stirred up his brethren with 
his own zeal until they resolved on a mission to the pagan 
world, and Carey himself was sent. On arriving in India 
he ,vas obliged to conceal himself from the knowledge of 
the East India Company, whose policy was altogether op- 
posed to efforts for the conversion of the natives. For 
many years he labored in great seclusion, supporting him- 
self by working on an indigo plantation. In the year 1800 
he was joined by Marshman and Ward, from England, when 
they established themselves under Danish protection at Se- 
rampore. They seemed almost to be endued with the gift 
of tongues, so successfully did they devote themselves to 
the acquisition of languages and to the translation of the 
Word of God into the numerous tongues of the East. They 



CALCUTTA. 219 

established presses on which the Word of God was printed 
in languages spoken by at least half the pagan world. They 
laid the foundation for a college of a high order, and erect- 
ed for it a building which even now is regarded as one of 
the finest structures of its kind in India. They procured a 
choice and extensive library, which is still a rich repository 
of learning and a monument to their own enlarged ideas 
and acquisitions. 

A great part of the expense of these enterprises they 
bore themselves. It is wonderful that a few poor mission- 
aries could do such a work ; but they were earnest men of 
genius, and they lived not unto themselves. Dr. Carey re- 
ceived for thirty years more than a thousand rupees a 
month (equal to $6000 a year) for his services as professor 
in the College of Fort William, at Calcutta, and translator 
to the East India Company; Mr. Ward received as much 
more from the printing-office, and Mr. and Mrs. Marshman 
about the same from teaching ; and yet, while they were 
receiving these princely sums, they ate at a common table, 
and drew from the common fund only twelve rupees each, 
or four dollars a month. The remainder was devoted, by 
a mutual contract, to the purposes of the mission, and was 
employed in spreading the Gospel. The cost of the Chi- 
nese version alone, which they prepared and printed, was 
20,000 pounds sterling, or $100,000. The words of the 
agreement which they signed when they entered on their 
work were, " Let us give ourselves up unreservedly to this 
glorious cause. Let us never think that our time, our 
gifts, our strength, our families, or even the clothes we 
wear, are our own. Let us sanctify them all to God and 
his cause." Now that life's labor is over, these devoted 
men sleep together on the spot consecrated by their many 
years of toil in the service of the Master. 

Here, too, Henry Martyn, of blessed memory, lived for a 
time and studied, fitting himself for his short but important 
life-service in India and Persia. Nor is this spot without 
special interest for Americans. When the first band of 



220 ABOUND TEE WORLD. 

missionaries from our o"wn country to the East reached 
India, this was the only spot in all the land in which they 
could find a resting-place even for a day. 

All these associations were so many powerful attractions, 
and I gladly accepted an invitation from Dr. George Smith, 
the accomplished and learned editor of the Friend of In- 
dia, to visit him at his home at Serampore. I found him 
awaiting me at the station, and we drove first to the ceme- 
tery, known as the Westminster Abbey of India, where 
Carey, and Marshman, and Ward were buried. Carey 
wrote his own epitaph, which is inscribed on a plain ceno- 
taph : 

WILLIAM CAREY : 

BORN 17TH OF AUGUST, I761, 

DIED 9TH OF JUNE, 1834. 

"^ wretched, poor, and helpless worm, 
On Thy kind a?-ms Ifalir 

I visited the college where those prophets taught; I 
stood in the pulpit where Carey preached, and saw the 
room in which Marshman died. Dr. Smith pointed out to 
me the site of the pagoda in which Henry Martyn devoted 
himself with such assiduity and success to the study of the 
languages in which he afterward preached the Gospel. 
The college building is still in excellent repair, and the li- 
brary was most tempting in its choice collection of books, 
among which I would fain have lingered. But, as else- 
where, I suffered from the bane of travelers, want of time, 
and I could not linger in any of the many interesting 
scenes in which I found myself. 

We drove out to the grounds of a wealthy Baboo to wit- 
ness a Hindoo festival that had been in progress two or 
three days, and which was then at its height. It was in 
honor of some one of the multitude of gods which the Hin- 
doos reverence, but in the form of an entertainment for 
the people, who had come together in great numbers in 
holiday attire. In various places by the roadside and in 
booths, or under canopies, were groups of statuary formed 



VERNMENT OF mDIA ; EUROPEANS, ETC. 221 

from the plastic mud of the Ganges, which is superior to 
the finest statuary clay. Some of the groups were in cari- 
cature, but others were perfectly life-like, evincing real ge- 
nius in the extemporaneous artists. In a large inclosure, 
separated from the crowd of natives, a sort of musical 
drama was in progress, the music and the words appearing 
improvised, but falling on the ear with pleasing effect. 
Every thing was conducted with strict decorum, and the 
whole scene, as I witnessed it for a few moments while the 
shades of evening were falling — its perfect novelty, its 
strictly and strangely Oriental features, and its surround- 
ings of bamboos, and palm-trees, and other tropical vegeta- 
tion — formed a picture which can not easily be forgotten. 
Crossing the Hoogly to Barrackpore, and passing through 
the grove of an immense banyan-tree, I reached the station 
of the East-side Railway, and was shortly in Calcutta again. 



GOVERNMENT OF INDI^ ; EUROPEANS, ETC. v 

The Hindoos claim for their country and nation an an- 
tiquity which ought to satisfy the most enthusiastic advo- 
cates of the long geologic periods. They make it out that 
things have been going on somewhat after the present or- 
der for indefinite ages — four or five thousand millions of 
years ; that in the early days of their race people used to 
live a hundred thousand years ; that they were the matter of 
thirty-five or forty feet in height, etc. ; but the records of 
those ancient times are not very authentic. Nothing satis- 
factory is known either of the country or the people before 
Alexander the Great crossed the mountain barrier on the 
noj'th and extended his arms onward toward the peninsula. 
This was a little more than three hundred years before the 
Christian era. From that time to the present we have rec- 



222 AROUND THE WOELD. 

ords more or less autlientic, first, of the Hindoo rule of 
about thirteen centuries, and then of the Mohammedan, in- 
cluding the reign of the Mogiil emperors, exceeding in 
splendor all that the world has seen out of liindostan, and 
reaching down to the complete occupation of the country 
by British power. 

It was the wealth of the Mogul dynasty which first led 
European cupidity to turn its eyes toward the East. The 
discovery of the passage to India around the Cape of Good 
Hope, six years after the discovery of America by Colum- 
bus, opened up the whole of India to the commerce of Eu- 
rope. In the year 1600 a commercial company was char- 
tered in England under the name of the East India Com- 
pany, which continued to increase in power, and to extend 
the objects and limits of its sway, until it had taken posses- 
sion of all India, and at length was compelled to turn it 
over completely to the crown of Britain. The East India 
Company, which had been a mine of wealth and an engine 
of almost unlimited power to its corporators, was abolished 
by act of Parliament in 1858, the year after the great mu- 
tiny, having been gradually shorn of its privileges and pow- 
er by the same authority in successive renewals of its 
charter. Its immense wealth and power may be inferred 
from the fact that its gross revenue for the year 1850 was 
£135,000,000, or nearly $675,000,000. Its expenditures 
were at a corresponding rate. 

The Empire of India, which includes a number of prov- 
inces or presidencies such as Bengal, Bombay, Madras, etc., 
and extends over a territory of a million and a half square 
miles, with a population of two hundred millions of people, 
is now administered by a viceroy, or governor general, who 
has under him, in the several provinces, governors, lieuten- 
ant governors, and commissioners, some of the native prin- 
ces retaining a semi-independent position in their own ter- 
ritories. All the great native rulers were dethroned and 
their territory appropriated in the conquests made by Brit- 
ish arms. 



GOVERNMENT OF INDIA; EUROPEANS, ETC. 223 

For two centuries and a half India was ruled for the ben- 
efit of the East India Company. This was a commercial 
enterprise, undertaken for the sole purpose of making gain ; 
it did not pretend to establish itself for the purpose of do- 
ing good to the inhabitants of India ; trade, and gold, and 
diamonds were the objects sought, while the welfare of two 
hundred millions of people was among the last things con- 
sidered. Even the claims of religion, humanity, and justice 
were too often treated as if they had no binding force in 
that longitude. Not the splendors of successive conquests 
of territory from native kings and princes, nor the brilliant 
administration of such men as Warren Hastings, can blind 
the world to the wrongs and crimes which marked the prog- 
ress of British empire in the Eas*". It is in many respects 
a dark record, unworthy of a Christian or a noble people. 
But that is all changed since the East India Company was 
abolished, or, if not all, the purpose and the general admin- 
istration of the government is changed. India is now ruled, 
not for the sake of extorting money from an unwilling, sub- 
jugated race, but for the good of the people of India. 

It is with great pleasure that I bear testimony to the high 
character of the men who have the administration of affairs 
in that empire, as well as to the promising aspect of the 
country in its material, educational, social, and religious in- 
terests, as being full of promise. I doubt if any country 
has more conscientious and intelligent public officers con- 
trolling its destinies. There are reforms yet to be consum- 
mated. The extreme caution of the rulers prevents them 
from taking the bold stand assumed by the home govern- 
ment in favor of Christianity and against some of the enor- 
mities of idolatry and heathenism ; many evils growing out 
of the peculiarities of the people, the variety of races, the 
inveterate nature of hoary prejudices, yet remain to be re- 
move^ or remedied; but, judging from the promise of the 
present, India bids fair to become again a mighty empire in 
the East, and to outshine in real glory the splendor of the 
old Moguls. 



224: AROUND THE WORLD. 

The viceroyalty of India is the liighest office under the 
British crown, and, considering the extent of its sway, and 
the population over which it is exercised, is the most im- 
portant delegated office in the world. The power is not as 
absolute as was that of the governor general in the palmy 
days of the East India Company. Being directly respon- 
sible to the home government, the viceroy is under statu- 
tory checks ; general legislative power also is in the hands 
of councils, provincial and general, so that a uniform and 
complete system of government, and one which might be 
called constitutional, extends over the whole of India. 
The outward dignity of government is maintained by a 
liberal provision for its support. The viceroy has a salary 
of £25,000 (five times that of the President of the United 
States), with as much or more for incidental expenses ; an 
extensive palace and complete establishment at Calcutta, 
with provision for a country residence and a summer cap- 
ital on the Himalaya Mountains, to which the governor 
general and the supreme council remove during the hot 
season. 

The salaries of officials in India are generally large, and 
the immense army of office-holders employed in all the de- 
partments of government, the revenues for their payment 
being drawn from the country itself, makes this possession 
one of incalculable value and importance to Great Brit- 
ain. It is the source from which a large representation of 
the higher and middle classes obtain their support. The 
younger sons of the aristocracy who can not be maintain- 
ed in affluence, and a large force of others who are able 
to obtain appointments, are sent to India to fill the offices 
in the various branches of the military or civil service. 
There is a charm about Oriental life which makes it at- 
tractive. The pay is liberal. Some officials receive enor- 
mous salaries, with the promise of pensions after the term 
of service has expired ; and at the end of seven years, as a 
rule, officers high and low have a furlough of a year on 
half pay, with the expenses of a journey homeward paid. 



GOVERNMENT OF INDIA; EUROPEANS, ETC. 225 

This rule, in the form of a custom, extends even to clerks 
in banks and other private corporations. It is not strange, 
therefore, that India is regarded at home as a sort of El 
Dorado. 

I have spoken of the great change which has come over 
the administration of affairs in India since it became more 
directly dependent upon the British crown. The change 
is noticeable every where, but in no respect more than in 
the extent and thoroughness of the educational work car- 
ried on by the government. I was aware that a system of 
public instruction had been organized, and that institutions 
of learning had been established at various points, but I 
was not prepared to find that these institutions were of 
such a high order; that so many of the youth of India, 
Hindoo and Mohammedan, were enjoying and profiting by 
these advantages, or that such liberal provision was made 
by the government for their support and for general edu- 
cation. "Within the last ten years the progress of the work 
has been rapid. The appropriations for this object by the 
government for the year previous to my arrival in the 
country amounted to nearly nine millions of rupees, or 
more than $4,000,000. This was distributed over the 
whole of the empire, so that every school conforming to 
the requisitions of government received its share. 

A University is established in each of the three presi- 
dencies of Bengal, Bombay, and Madras. These are ex- 
amining bodies only, but colleges and schools of various 
grades are established in all the different provinces. In 
Calcutta alone there are eleven colleges of a high order, 
including the institutions of the Kirk and Free Church of 
Scotland, the students of which, on completing their course 
of study, appear before the University on examination for 
their degrees. In Lower Bengal there are five colleges, 
and in the northwest provinces and the Punjaub, seven. 
There are, besides, similar institutions in Bombay and Mad- 
ras. These colleges are all thoroughly equipped with pro- 
fessorships filled by scholars who have had a university 

P 



226 ABOUNJ) THE WORLD. 

education at home, some of them men eminent for their 
attainments, and have all the appliances for a complete ed- 
ucation in the arts, scieUQes, and languages. In the year 
above referred to there were, in the colleges and schools 
taught, aided, or inspected by the state, 662,537 scholars. 
These were, with very few exceptions, natives. 

Too much attention and .too large a proportion, of the 
appropriations have beep 4pvoted to the higher institu- 
tions, without suitable provision for the education of the 
masses. One reason f or thi^ is, that it has been the policy 
of the government to edu(?ate native youth for its own ser- 
vice in the various departments of civil life, and for this 
purpose mainly the colleges were originally founded; but, 
now that so large a nu^nber have enjoyed these advan- 
tages, it would accord with. the general policy of the gov- 
ernment to elevate the people by diffusing the blessings of 
a sound education. Such a course, I believe, is to be pur- 
sued. A general system of schools for the country, ap- 
proaching our own public - school system, has been under 
consideration, and will probably soon be adopted. 

The standard objection against the government schools 
and colleges of India is that they are hot Christian in their 
character ; that the course of instruction has tended rath- 
er to favor than to oppose idolatry. There is too much 
ground for the objection; but, after becoming more famil- 
iar with the character of the people, and with the peculiar 
circumstances of the government, I could better appreciate 
the difficulties of establishing a system which should be 
avowedly hostile to the religious convictions of the people. 
It is not considered as the, i province of our own govern- 
ment to teach religion in afe, public schools, and there are 
difficulties in India in the way of teaching Christianity 
through governmental institutions of which we know noth- 
ing. Since being in India I look with more hope than be- 
fore to the results of the work of education which is car- 
ried on by the government,., , It must aid in the overthrow 
of idolatry, and of other forms of false religion which 



GOVERNMENT OF INDIA; EUROPEANS, ETC. 227 

have so long prevailed in the land. Many, it is true, be- 
come infidels on becoming convinced of the absurdity of 
the science which has formed a part of their own religious 
systems, but this may be only a transition state, not unnat- 
ural as the effect of correct scientific instruction without 
the pervading and prevailing influence of Christian con- 
viction. This conviction must come from a higher source 
than mere human instruction. 

The general attitude of the government toward the sys- 
tems of idolatry has undergone an entire change. The 
time was, and not many years ago, when the East India 
Company derived a large revenue from the temples and 
places of pilgrimage for devotees; when English soldiers 
were compelled to bow down and do reverence before the 
false gods for the sake of securing the favor or avoiding 
the hostility of the natives. A long indictment was re- 
corded against the former rulers of the land, and they were 
convicted not only of wickedness, but of folly, when, in the 
great mutiny of 1857, the very men whose favor they had 
courted became their deadliest enemies ; and when, from 
the beginning to the end of the rebellion, not a single Chris- 
tian convert in the land was known to lift his hand or give 
any information against the English. The authorities have 
learned wisdom and righteousness by this terrible experi- 
ence.* 

* Meadows Taylor, in his History of India, speaking of the administration 
of Lord Auckland, says : 

"All connection between the English government of India iind Hindoo 
temples and their idolatrous ceremonies was abohshed under imperative or- 
ders from the Court of Directors and the Board of Control. All revenues 
derivable from these sources were abandoned, and the temples and their en- 
dowments placed under the management of their own priests. It will hardly 
now be credited how much honor had used to be accorded to idols and their 
worship before this most necessary exactment of April 20, 1840. Up to this 
time troops had been paraded at festivals, salutes fired, and offerings by the 
Company presented to idol deities, and the Eui'opean functionar}' of the dis- 
trict was obliged, often most unwillingly, to take a part in heathen ceremo- 
nies originally conceded to conciliate the people, but which had grown by 
usage into a portion of the ceremonies themselves. It is still stranger to 
record that it was not till the lapse of years that a final disseverance from 
and abandonment of pilgrim taxes was effected." 



228 ABOUND THE WORLD. 

The European population of India, of whom the natives 
of the British Isles form by far the largest part, is about 
160,000. They are chiefly engaged in the public service, 
military and civil, although in the principal cities there is 
a large mercantile population. There are very few Euro- 
peans in India who were born there, and scarcely one 
whose parents were natives of the country. From a remote 
period the children of English or Scotch parents have been 
sent home, not merely to be educated away from the evil 
associations of the land, but to be raised in a more health- 
ful climate. Children of foreign parents are more exposed 
to the injurious influences of the climate than those who 
come to India in adult years. It was mentioned to me also 
as a singular fact, that women born in India of European 
parents seldom become mothers, a proof of the deleterious 
effect of the climate upon the constitution ; consequently 
one rarely sees children in the families of the foreign resi- 
dents, or much more i"arely than in other countries. They 
have either not been born, or they have been sent home. 
The trial which missionaries have been called so often to 
endure in sending their children from the home circle and 
from parental care is one which is shared by a large part 
of the foreign residents, who are engaged either in the pub- 
lic service or in mercantile business. 

There is another class, the children of European fathers 
and native mothers, called Eurasians, East-Indians, Half- 
castes, etc., numbering about 80,000. Being a sort of con- 
necting link between the two races, they are commonly ac- 
quainted with the foreign and the native languages ; many 
of them have had special advantages of education, and 
many of them occupy positions of usefulness, as clerks or 
agents of the government. They are easily distinguished by 
their European features from the natives, and, being almost 
as dark as the natives, are never confounded with Europe- 
ans. They are not reputed to possess the same mental or 
physical vigor, or tO- have as much enterprise of character 
as foreigners. 



GOVERNMENT OF INDIA; EUROPEANS, ETC. 229 

During the hot season all business requiring active exer- 
tion is crowded as much as possible into the early morning, 
es^jecially if it makes exposure to the sun necessary. The 
army-drill is over by eight or nine o'clock, traveling is done 
by night, and during the middle of the day the struggle for 
existence is most wisely managed by ceasing the struggle 
altogether, and giving one's self up to perfect quiet. The 
slightest exercise instantly produces violent perspiration, 
and the same effect follows the suspension of the punha. 
The punka is a broad fan suspended overhead, and usually 
stretcliing across the room ; in the dining-room reaching 
the length of the table. It is moved by coolies in an ante- 
room, who, by means of a cord attached to the pu?ika, draw 
it back and forth. Every private house, every place of 
business, and every assembly-room is supplied with this in- 
dispensable requisite. The churches have immense punkas 
suspended over the heads of the congregations, which wave 
back and forth majestically during the entire service. The 
first time that 1 was called upon to address a congregation 
through such a medium, I found it far less suggestive of 
ideas and suitable emotions than if I had been speaking to 
the people face to face. But even the heat of a church 
would be unendurable without thepunkas. They are quite 
as essential at night in the homes during the hot season. 
No sleeping can be done without them, ^or are they such 
a severe tax upon the coolies as might be supposed. The 
coolies are paid for the service; it is their only support; 
they luxuriate in the heat as do the natives of Africa, and 
they have their time for rest. Few natives of any country 
in the East die of hard work. 

Europeans in India live much more freely in respect to 
eating and drinking than is generally supposed to be con- 
sistent with such a climate, but it may be that the waste of 
the human system demands a generous supply to repair it. 
1 have never been in any land where free indulgence with- 
in the bounds of temperance was more generally the rule. 
Foreign residents rise early all the year round, and take a 



230 AROUND THE WORLD. 

cup of tea, with toast, or some light food, immediately on 
rising. This is called chota hazril, or the little breakfast. 
About nine or ten o'clock comes the real breakfast, usually 
an elaborate meal of fish, eggs, and some preparation of rice, 
with meats. At one o'clock tiffin, a still more hearty meal, 
is taken, and at seven or eight o'clock dinner, which is the 
meal of the day, and which is much after the pattern of an 
English or American dinner. This generous style of living 
seems to agree with the people ; for, instead of the yellow 
or dark-skinned, shrunken, liver-diseased race that I expect- 
ed to see, I found the gentlemen robust and rosy-faced, to 
my great astonishment, and the ladies equally well favored. 
(I speak of health, not of beauty, for in this respect the la- 
dies always and every where bear the palm.) They assured 
us that we found them at their best, in the midst of the cool 
season, when they were luxuriating in a genial temperature ; 
but, from the general aspect of the foreign residents, I felt 
convinced that India had been greatly belied, or that for- 
eigners had learned how to adapt themselves to its climate 
better than in years past. 

The subdivision of labor is carried in India to its very 
utmost limit. Every servant has his own sphere, and it 
would be about as diificult to move him from it as to turn 
one of the planets from its orbit. It almost reaches the 
point that one servant who takes up an article must have 
another to lay it down for him. This necessitates the em- 
ployment of a large number to do the work of a household. 
Fortunately, the I'ate of wages is very low, or it would re- 
quire a fortune to live at alb A family, however small, 
living in any style, must have a kansuma, a butler or stew- 
ard ; Mtniutgar, a head table-servant, besides a table-serv- 
ant for every member of the family ; hohagee, or cook ; tnee- 
ta, man-sweeper ; metrane, female sweeper ; musalche, to 
clean knives and wash dishes ; surdar, head bearer, with 
eight common bearers if he keeps a palanquin, to pull pun- 
ka, etc. ; durwan, gate - keeper ; dobey, washerman ; hhees- 
tie, to bring water : abdar, to cool the water ; chuj[>rasse, a 



GOVERNMENT OF INDIA ; EUROPEANS, ETC. 231 

confidential messenger; coolies, to cany marketing and 
other burdens ; chohedar, watchman ; if he keeps a carriage 
he must have a gharry-walla, or coachman, with a syce, or 
groom, for each liorse, who runs with the horse ; and so on, 
ahiiost without end. Some of the servants must be Mo- 
hammedans, for the Hindoos will not touch certain dishes, 
and the Mohammedans, on the other hand, have their an- 
tipathies in household service which must be consulted. 

Among the chief objections to a residence in India is 
the extreme heat during the greater part of the year. 
Frost seldom occurs south of the Nerbudda, and even in 
the far north the winter season is known as such only by 
the cool nights. This season is very short, and from 
March to June the heat increases with great intensity. 
Hot scorching winds prevail, the earth becomes parched, 
and vegetation withers. J^or is the degree of heat gradu- 
ated by the latitude, excepting that it is more intense in 
the extreme north than in the central or southern parts. 
The great plain of Hindostan suffers most. I was inform- 
ed by a gentleman who has resided near the Himalaya 
Mountains, on the plain, for thirty years, that he had often 
seen the thermometer for weeks standing at midday in the 
shade at 110, 120, and 130, and at night it seldom falls, 
during the hot season, below 90 or 100. This would be al- 
most insupportable but for the punkas, which are kept mov- 
ing night and day. The mountains and the high table- 
lands afford a refuge, like " the shadow of a great rock in a 
weary land," to those who are able to remove. In June, 
when the heat is at its greatest, the clouds pile up, and the 
southeast monsoon bursts upon the land, attended with ter- 
rific storms of thunder and lightning, and torrents of rain. 
Every thing becomes saturated or swollen with moisture, as 
it was parched and warped with heat before. This rainy 
season is not of long continuance, and under the influence 
of the succeeding heat the land bursts forth into vegeta- 
tion, which advances, under occasional rains, with wonder- 
ful rapidity and beauty. The southeastern coast is not 
reached by the monsoons until late in the year. 



232 ABOUND THE WOULD. 

The quantity of water that falls in the rainy season va- 
ries greatly in different localities, according to distance 
from the coast and the mountains, the sea and the low- 
marshy lands supplying moisture which the mountains 
condense. Sometimes a short distance makes a vast differ- 
ence in the rainfall. At Bombay, the average fall in the 
year is about 75 inches ; on the Ghauts, south of Bombay, it 
is 254 inches ; while a little farther inland, at Poonah, over 
the mountains, it is only 23 inches. According to the same 
authority, the fall of rain on the Khasia hills is 600 inches, 
fifty feet. This immense fall of water is attributed to the 
passing of the air from the sea over 200 miles of swampy 
country, by which it becomes surcharged with moisture, 
that precipitates itself when it strikes the mountains, and 
falls in toiTents as long as the monsoon prevails in that di- 
rection. Only twenty miles farther inland the amount is 
200 inches. I met in India a veteran army officer who 
had spent twenty years in Assam, the eastern part of India. 
He gave me an extract from the meteorological record that 
he had kept in that country for many years which contain- 
ed some remarkable statistics. In one year, 1862, there 
fell at Chorra - poongee 725 inches of rain, a little more 
than sixty feet, probably the heaviest rainfall ever noted 
at any place on the earth. 

The sand-storms of India are even more remarkable than 
the rain. They are violent whirlwinds, occurring occasion- 
ally in the dry season, gathering up the dust and carrying 
it over the country in such volumes as actuallj^ to make 
midday as dark as midnight.* 

* Lady Baker, in her Letters from India, gives the following description of 
one of these sand-storms : 

' ' Scarcely had the servants fastened firmly to the ground the large curtain 
which formed our tent door, and which was generally festooned back with 
green wreaths of mango-leaves, when the tent shook and swayed backward 
and forward, and in a few moments every thing was covered more than an 
inch deep with the finest dust, which had filtered through the numerous folds 
of the canvas. It was impossible to read or work ; the candles only gave a 
little gleam of light through the thick atmosphere, and all we touched was 
gritty. For four long hours our imprisonment lasted, and it was not until 
sunset that the servants pronounced it safe to release us. As soon as the 



G VEBNMENT OF INDIA ; EUROPEANS, ETC. 233 




A BAI^D-STOKif. 



One of the greatest luxuries in India is American ice, 
which at the principal ports is received in large quantities, 
and is freely used. It comes fi'om Boston, and is no incon- 
siderable item in the trade with Bombay and Calcutta. A 

tent-flaps were lifted up, we all burst out laughing at each other — such ob- 
jects you never saw ! No one had an eyebrow or an eyelash to be seen ; the 
bronzed and red complexions which outdoor life had produced were all hid- 
den under a thick coating of dust, and we needed only a few streaks of paint 
to have looked like Clown in the pantomime, for our faces were quite as white 
as his. We could see the dense cloud moving on to the southwest, but all 
was beautifully clear behind it ; only a slight haze between us and it show- 
ed that the atmosphere was not quite free from dust a little beyond us. I 
looked at the horses : they were all as white as if they had been powdered 
with flour ; and the water-carriers were busy filling the large goatskins which 
serve them as water-jugs, to give every live thing which had been outside a 
good drink, and to wasli the dust out of their eyes and ears. The camels 
had buried their noses in the sand, and did not appear to have suffered at 
all.'' 



234 AROUND THE WOULD. 

cargo of ice will waste from one third to one half in the 
passage to India by the way of the Cape of Good Hope, 
, but even with this waste it is a profitable shipment. Tlie 
raw material costs little ; a cargo is very speedily packed 
in a vessel, and when it reaches its destination in the East 
it is sold at an immense advance. The price of ice at Bom- 
bay and Calcutta varies from two and a half to five cents a 
pound, according to the supply, and even at these rates it 
is accounted as indispensable to living as in American 
cities, and the luxury is inconceivably greater. Owing to 
the extreme heat it can not be sent far into the country, 
but in former times it was sent to the wealthy nabobs and 
English residents on the heads of relays of coolies, fifty or 
sixty miles in the course of a night, and it is now sent 
much farther by rail. It is also manufactured artificially 
in the interior at no greater expense than its importation. 
At Allahabad there is a large establishment where the 
manufacture has been successfully and profitably carried 
on. If it be a blessing in America, where the thermometer 
sometimes reaches 95 as the extreme heat of the day, what 
a boon must it be in the north of India, where for days and 
nights together the thermometer does not fall as low as 
100, and where it often reaches in the day 120 and 130 de- 
grees ! But the most of the people in the interior of India 
never saw ice, and comparatively few know any thing of 
its use. It is a 'miracle in their ideas. 



PUBLIC WOEKS ; PEODUCTIONS. 

The material development of India has gone forward 
with great rapidity within the last quarter of a century, 
more especially since it came directly under the control of 
■the home government. One of the first enterprises under- 



PUBLIC WORKS; PEODUCTIONS. 235 

taken was the construction of public roads. As the milita- 
ry and civil power of the English became more extended, 
it was found necessary to have better modes of transporta- 
tion, and the old East India Company undertook the con- 
struction of carriage-roads over the country. The work was 
vigorously prosecuted, and at great expense. The Grand 
Trunk Road extends from Calcutta to Peshawur, on the 
borders of Afghanistan, a distance of 1400 miles. These 
roads are no insignificant works. They are laid out by the 
best engineering skill, and executed in the most substantial 
manner. For more than a thousand miles from Calcutta 
northwest. no grading was required, excepting on very short 
distances, .but farther north the work was heavy. From 
Lahore to Peshawur, a distance of a little more than 250 
miles, the road passes over 103 lai'ge bridges and 459 small- 
er ones, through six mountainous chains, and over immense 
embankments on the marshy borders of rivers. Its esti- 
mated cost was more than one million sterling. There are 
branch roads over the Sewalic range of the Himalayas,, in 
Bengal and the Punjaub, some of which are admirable 
specimens of engineering and grading, the surface being as 
smooth as the roads of England or of France. The soil it- 
self furnishes the material for their construction. Through 
a great part of the plains of India, small nodules of lime- 
ston'e, called hunkei', are found in large quantities a foot or 
two below the surface. It looks, when taken from the 
ground, as if it might have been broken up for making a 
Macadam road. When packed with the soil and watered, 
it forms a concrete, making a hard road-bed as smooth as it 
is durable. There are several thousand miles of these Mac- 
adam roads, frequently shaded with trees on either side to 
protect travelers from the raj^s of the sun. 

A work of still greater importance to India has been the 
opening of extensive canals, designed not so much for trans- 
portation as for Irrigation. The rains are very unequally 
distributed over the country ; they are not altogether equal 
in amount from year to year in the same locality, and the 



236 ABOUJfJ) THE WOULD. 

seasons are so uniformly divided into rainy and dry that 
the soil and the crops frequently suffer, and the people in 
consequence, for the want of natural irrigation. Undei" 
che old Mogul emperors extensive canals were dug for the 
purpose of watering the plains, but the East India Compa- 
ny had been long established before any systematic attempt 
was made to supply the deficiency. In the mean time great 
scarcity of rain, and floods in other seasons, had brought on 
destructive famines, which more than decimated the popu- 
lation in large districts. The distress and loss of life were 
fearful. This suffering stimulated the government, though 
but too tardily, to provide against such calamities by an ex- 
tensive system of irrigation. The Ganges Canal, the chief 
work of this nature, reaching from Tlurdwar, near the sour- 
ces of the river, to Cawnpore, where it re-enters, 810 miles 
in length including its main branches, was an immense un- 
dertaking, but it has been an immense benefit to the coun- 
try. The main canal is 150 feet wide, is the channel of a 
rapid stream, and in its course crosses the Solani Kiver by 
what is said to be the most magnificent aqueduct in the 
world. This structure alone cost a million and a half of 
dollars. The Bari Doab Canal, between the Sutlej and the 
Ravi, nearly 500 miles in extent, cost the government more 
than seven millions of dollars. The Ganges Canal alone 
irrigates a million and a half of acres, and is not only a 
great public benefit, but a source of large profit to the gov- 
ernment. 

The telegraph was early introduced into India, connect- 
ing the principal cities north and south, east and west. 
During the mutiny it proved of incalculable importance. 
Wooden poles being less durable in that climate than in 
our own and many other countries, the wires to a large ex- 
tent are erected on stone or brick pillars. There are now 
14,000 miles of telegraph wires in India, all under the con- 
trol of government, and subject to a uniform tariff, without 
regard to distance. A message of ten words may be sent 
from one end of the empire to the other for one rupee, about 



\ 



PUBLIC WORKS; PRODUCTIONS. 237 

fifty cents in our money. "Within the last few years the 
telegraph service has brought a small profit to the govern- 
ment. The postal service is a source of revenue, although 
the postage is cheaper than in any other country, being a 
half anna (or one cent and a half) for any distance in the 
empire. 

The greatest change of a material nature that has taken 
place in India has been through its railM^ays. In no other 
part of the world has this improvement wrought such a 
revolution in travel, or made such a general innovation 
upon established customs. In Oriental countries time is a 
commodity that has no appreciable value. In making a 
journey, as in any and all the business of life, it has been a 
matter of no account to the natives whether weeks or hours 
were consumed; it was all the same to them. Even after 
Western ideas had taken root, speed was a plant of very 
slow growth. An American missionary informed me that 
when he first went to India he was three months in making 
the journey from Calcutta to Allahabad, a distance of 630 
miles, which is now made regularly in about twenty-four 
hours. I met another gentleman in the north of India 
who said that, when he came to the country, less than twen- 
ty years ago, he was five months in making the passage 
from Calcutta to Dehra. When the railroad was opened 
from Delhi to Umballah in 1869, making a continuous line 
from Calcutta about the same distance as to Dehra, .and not 
far from it, a special train made the entire distance, 1154 
miles, in forty-one hours— not a slight reduction from five 
months. In old times, the common mode of travel up 
country was by the River Ganges, in boats which were 
pulled and poled against the current at the rate of a very 
few, if any, miles a day. Sometimes the progress was rap- 
idly backward with the current. If great haste was re- 
quired, the palanquin was resorted to ; and in India coolies 
are not the most rapid travelers in the world. 

The introduction of railways was at first strongly op- 
posed by the natives and by some Europeans, but under 



238 AROUSD THE WORLD. 

the encouragement and substantial aid of the East India 
government the work was undertaken. Yery few persons 
out of India appear to have any idea of the extent to 
which this branch of internal improvements has been car- 
ried. The first train of cars in India was set in motion in 
1852, not twenty years ago, and now there are more than 
5000 miles of railway in operation. The East Indian Eail- 
way extends already nearly 1500 miles from Calcutta to 
the northwest, near the borders of Afghanistan. The Great 
Indian Peninsular Eailway, from Bombay to the northeast, 
with its branches, is of almost equal extent, and, besides 
these, there are several important roads. The East Indian 
had a very practicable route laid out for it up the Valley 
of the Ganges. That part of India is a vast plain, resem- 
bling our Western prairies, or even more level and exten- 
sive. For more than a thousand miles .there is scarcely a 
single embankment or cut of any extent. Indeed, from 
Calcutta to the Himalaya Mountains one rarely meets the 
slightest elevation. This made the construction of that 
road very easy ; but in the west is some heavy work. For a 
hundred miles out of Bombay the Great Indian Peninsular 
Railway runs over and through a range of mountains by a 
succession of ghauts, over immense embankments and via- 
ducts of masonry, and is carried, within a short distance, 
through twenty tunnels cut in the solid rock. These works 
have been executed at immense expense. An idea of the 
solidity of the railways of India may be gathered from the 
fact that, notwithstanding so much of the country is an 
open plain, making their construction, excepting through 
occasional ghauts, comparatively easy, the average cost of 
the 4000 miles completed at the opening of the year 1S69 
was $85,000 per mile. There are now more than 5000 
miles in operation. They were built by private companies, 
the government guaranteeing five per cent, interest upon 
the capital invested, without which they could not have 
been undertaken. The amount of interest thus advanced 
by the government up to January 1st, 1869, was about 



PUBLIC WORKS; PRODUCTIONS. 239 

$125,000,000, of which more than half had been repaid 
from the revenues of tlie roads. Throughout the entire 
peninsula the rails were laid with a uniform gauge of five 
feet six inches. The narrow gauge, I learn, has since been 
adopted. The weight of the rails varies from sixty to 
eighty-four pounds the yard. 

The route by rail from Calcutta to Bombay via Allaha- 
bad, a distance of 1470 miles, was completed in March. 
1870, a month too late for me to avail myself of its facili- 
ties for a part of the distance; but the event was consid- 
ered one of great importance by travelers to and from the 
north and east of India. Formerly passengers from En- 
gland to Calcutta and the cities up the valley of the Gan- 
ges had sailed direct to Calcutta by the Cape or through 
the Ked Sea ; but now they land at Bombay, where they 
take the rail to Allahabad, 845 miles, and thence to Cal- 
cutta, 625 miles, or to the north of India. The time be- 
tween Bombay and Calcutta, according to the Indian Brad- 
sliaw, was sixty-nine hours. It may be sliortened ere this. 

Contrary to general expectation, the railways have been 
immensely popular among the natives. They are a travel- 
ing people, having been accustomed from ancient times to 
make long pilgrimages, and, as soon as they became famil- 
iar with the sight of the cars, they began to crowd them 
in great numbers. The system of caste was at first an ob- 
jection, inasmuch as a high-caste Brahmin was wont to con- 
sider himself polluted if even the shadow of a low-caste 
man fell upon him, and much more if he touched him. 
The companies were strongly importuned to establish caste 
cars, in conformity with the social regulations of the coun- 
try ; but the government wisely forbade it, and the advan- 
tages of this rapid mode of travel were found to be so 
great that these stern prejudices were overcome ; and now, 
all who are not willing to pay for the exclusive use of a 
car are packed together promiscuously. Mohammedans 
and Hindoos, Brahmins and Pariahs, may be seen sitting 
cheek by jowl as composedly as if they had all been made 



240 AROUND THE WORLD. 

of one flesli. The railroads of India are thus havina: an 
important influence in breaking down the power of caste. 

The cars in India are after the European pattern, divided 
into compartments, but not equal in comfort to those of the 
same classes in England, and altogether inferior to those of 
our own country. The report of the Commission sent to 
the United States by the East India government to exam- 
ine our railroads, to which I have already referred, was al- 
together favorable to our system of construction and man- 
agement of cars, and especially of the Pullman cars. Im- 
mediately upon the publication of the report, an order was 
given for the remodeling of the carriages and the construc- 
tion of others having the accommodations of the Pullman 
cars. An application was also made, through the British 
minister at Washington and our own Secretary of State, 
for a competent American engineer to aid in remodeling 
tlieir whole railway system. Not in our own country have 
I heard more enthusiastic praises than I heard all over 
India of the grandeur and success of the great enterprise 
which laid an iron band across our wide continent, and 
built upon it those rolling palaces which pass from ocean 
to ocean with the fleetness of the wind and almost with the 
ease of a balloon. 

In making mention of some of the productions of the 
country, the one to be named of first importance as a 
source of revenue is the great curse of China. Opium had 
been raised in India long before it came imder British 
rule, but in 17Y3 the East India Company, becoming aware 
of its great pecuniary value, assumed the monopoly. It 
has ever since been raised under the direction and for the 
benefit of government. The amount exported, nearly all 
to China, in the financial year of 1869-70, was in value 
$58,466,650. The rulers of India and its merchants talk 
about the opium market, and the profits of the sale, as they 
do in London of consols, and as we do of our government 
securities, just as if it were not an unmitigated curse to 
the Chinese, who were compelled at the cannon's mouth 



PUBLIC WORKS; PBODUGTIONS. 241 

to take it when they steadfastly refused. The government 
auction sale at Calcutta is a scene of more excitement than 
I ever witnessed at the Paris Bourse or among the brok- 
ers of New York. I came one day, in the business quar- 
ter of the city, upon a crowd of thousands of Mohammed- 
ans, Hindoos, Parsees, and other natives, not to speak of 
Europeans, who were wild with excitement. For a mo- 
ment I imagined that a riot had broken out ; but I soon 
learned that it was the monthly opium sale, in which more 
persons are interested than in the sale of stocks in our 
markets. 

Opium is produced almost exclusively in Bengal, in a 
district lying along the Ganges, about 600 miles long and 
200 broad. It is the dried juice of the capsules of the 
common white poppy, extracted before the seed is fully 
ripe. The poppy-iields, when in full bloom, resemble greeii 
lakes studded with white water-lilies, the tract of country 
in which they grow being perfectly level. The following- 
account is given of the raising of the poppy and the man- 
ufacture of the drug : 

" The seed is sown in the beginning of ISTovember ; it 
flowers in the end of January, or a little later, and in three 
or four weeks the capsules or poppy-lieads are about the 
size of hens' eggs, and are ready for operating upon. The 
collectors each take a little instrument called a nushtur, 
made of three or four small blades of iron notched like a 
saw ; with this they wound each full-grown poppy-head as 
they make their way through the plants in the field. This 
is done early in the morning, before the heat of the sun is 
felt. During the day the milky juice of the plant oozes 
out, and early on the following morning it is collected by 
scraping it off, and transferred to an earthen vessel which 
the collector carries. When this is full it is carried home 
and transferred to a shallow brass dish, and left for a time 
tilted on its side, so that any watery fluid may drain out. 
This watery fluid is very detrimental to the opium unless 
removed. It now requires daily attendance, to be turned 

Q 



24:2 AROUND THE WORLD. 

frequently, so that the air may dry it equally, until it ac- 
quires a tolerable consistency, which takes three or four 
weeks. It is then packed in small earthen jars and taken 
to the go-downs, or factories, where the contents of each 
jar is turned out, and carefully weighed, tested, valued, 
and credited to the cultivator. The opium is then thrown 
into vast vats, and the mass, being kneaded, is again taken 
out and made into balls or cakes. This is done in long 
rooms, the workmen sitting in rows, carefully watched by 
the overseers to insure the work being properly perform- 
ed. The balls are wrapped in layers of poppy petals and 
taken to a drying-room, placed in tiers on latticed racks, 
and continually turned and examined, to keep them from 
insects and from other injury. After being fully dried 
they are packed in chests for the market." 

The drug is supposed to cost the government, laid down 
in Calcutta, 400 rupees ($200) per chest. On arrival at the 
government go-downs in Calcutta, it is sold by public auc- 
tion, in lots of five chests, to the highest bidder. On the 
fall of the hammer the buyer has always the option of 
there and then securing as many succeeding lots as he 
wishes at the same rate as the lot he has just bought. The 
purchaser of any parcels has to pay, on the fall of the 
hammer, bargain - money at the rate of 50 to 100 rupees 
per chest, and the balance of purchase - money within a 
fortnight. It is not compulsory, however, to take imme- 
diate delivery of the opium, as the government allows it to 
remain, free of warehouse charge, for an indefinite period. 
These auctions take place once every month, a price of 
400 rupees per chest being placed on the drug. All it 
realizes over and above this price goes toward increasing 
the revenue, and is a profit to the government. No pri- 
vate individuals are allowed to store opium in their go- 
downs ; all so found is looked upon as smuggled, and con- 
fiscated. When a buyer wishes to export his purchases, 
they are shipped for him by the government agent. For 
this production and traffic the government alone is respon- 
sible. 



PUBLIC WOBES; PRODUCTIONS. 243 

Another of the important and somewhat peculiar pro- 
ductions of India takes its name from the country, indigo. 
It is the product of a plant of the order Leguminosce, and 
genus Lidigqfera, of which there are between one and two 
hundred species. The species cultivated in India, Tinc- 
toria, grows to the height of three or four feet. The dye 
was known to the ancients, being taken to Greece and 
Rome from India, from which it was called Iiidicum, and 
hence indigo. The coloring principle is contained in the 
stems and leaves, which yield a colorless fluid, that is 
changed into the beautiful dye by fermentation. The seed 
is sown in drills ; the plants are tender, and require great 
care ; in about two months they begin to flower, producing 
a pale red flower, when they are cut and laid in mass in 
great stone cisterns, covered with water, and kept down by 
heavy weights. In the course of twelve or fourteen hours 
fermentation commences, the whole mass appears to be 
boiling, and bubbles of air of a purple hue begin to rise. 
When this process is complete the liquid is drawn off into 
another vat, and violently agitated until the coloring mat- 
ter begins to precipitate itself, when it is left to settle. 
The water is again drawn off, and the indigo dried and 
prepared for commerce. The production for the financial 
year 1869-70 amounted in value to $15,890,225. More 
is produced in India than in all other countries together. 

The good housewives, who are well acquainted with the 
mode of testing indigo by putting a lump into water to 
ascertain whether it is good or bad, but who do not pre- 
cisely know whether the good will sink or swim, and vice 
versa, may be informed that the best quality will float on 
water. The poorer qualities, having much earthy matter, 
sink. The finest indigo, in a dry state, will scarcely make 
a mark on white paper. 



244 AROUND THE WORLD. 



XVII. 

THE NATIVES OF INDIA ; CASTE, ETC. 

Befoee reaching India, I met with a very intelligent 
gentleman who had spent many years in that country. In 
the course of conversation I made some remark in regard 
to native society, to which he immediately replied, with an 
exclamation, " Native society ! Why, there is no such thing. 
The women (referring, of course, to the more wealthy class- 
es) never see any one, and the men spend their time be- 
tween eating and sleeping." 

This is a strong way of putting the matter ; but, with 
exceptional cases, it is the truth. There is no social life 
among the native population of India. The woman is no 
society to her husband, the only man whom, as a rule, she 
ever meets ; the man is no society to his wife : he regards 
her as belonging to an inferior order of beings, created 
only to minister to liis pleasure and comfort as a servant ; 
there is nothing like social intercourse between brothers 
and sisters ; and outside of the family, society, in our un- 
derstanding of the term, has no existence. Life is a dreary 
waste, judging it by the standards which prevail in all 
countries with which we are most familiar. 

It is not for the want of people that there is no society 
in India. Within the compass of 1900 miles in one direc- 
tion and 1500 in another (taking the diamond-shaped coun- 
try in its greatest length and breadth) there are two hun- 
dred millions of people thrown together. The most nu- 
merous of these are the Hindoos, who compose three 
fourths of the population, or about 150,000,000. Then 
come the Mohammedans, who number about 25,000,000. 
The remaining eighth is made up of the aboriginal tribes, 
whose immediate descendants still number several millions, 



THE NATIVES OF INDIA; CASTE, ETC. 245 

the Parsees, the Buddhists, the Jews, and the Christians. 
There is also the same sprinkhng of other nations which is 
to be found in almost every part of the world where an 
exclusive system has not prevailed. 

The Hindoos are not the original possessors of the soil. 
When they came into the land, some thousands of years 
ago, they found it already occupied by a people who had 
strayed over there not long after the dispersion. These 
tribes, after some twenty-five or thirty centuries, may still 
be found a distinct people in Orissa and other parts of In- 
dia; but they are so small a part of the population that 
the Plindoo may be regarded as the native race; and not 
merely because the most numerous, but because it has for 
so long a period given character to the country. Though 
not always the reigning element among the people of In- 
dia, the Hindoo has been the pervading element; his relig- 
ion, the Brahminical, has been the catholic religion ; and 
the great feature of Hindooism, caste, has stamped itself 
upon the country as its prevailing type, a social system of 
greater power than any other that has appeared in our 
world, save only the divine system of Christianity, which 
is destined to triumph over all. 

The Mohammedans, who, many centuries before the in- 
troduction of European commerce and power, established 
themselves by successive conquests, and at length became 
the ruling class, retain their religious characteristics, though 
adapting themselves in many of the habits of life to the 
country of which they took possession. They introduced a 
splendor of architecture and a gorgeous style of life, which 
culminated in the magnificence that marked the Mogul 
dynasty, the monuments of which have not passed away 
with the destruction of their power in the East. 

It is one of the marvels of Oriental life that these differ- 
ent races, having religions not only different, but diametri- 
cally opposed, have lived together mth so little outbreak- 
ing hostility. The Hindoos are the grossest idolaters that 
have ever existed. Their forms of idol- worship and service 



246 AROUND THE WORLD. 

have reached the lowest degradation, and yet the Moham- 
medans, whose religion is essentially a protest against idol- 
atry, have lived with them for long centuries, and each 
have maintained their own religion intact. The Moham- 
medan power came into India with its chief weapon of 
conversion, the sword, in hand, and for a time it was plied 
not without effect. Some succeeding emperors exhibited 
the spirit of proselytism, but, as a general thing, Moham- 
medans and Hindoos have lived together with remarkable 
tolerance of each other's antagonistic faiths. 

The Sikhs, who were once a powerful community in the 
north of India — powerful with their swords, and even now 
physically the finest race in all the land — were the product 
of an attempt to combine the two religions. After this 
new religion had been well established, it ended in attack- 
ing both Hindooism and Mohammedanism ; but, though it 
developed a hardy, warlike community, who are still distin- 
guished as soldiers, it has never had any great influence 
upon the religious thought or faith of the country. 

Of the Parsees, the followers of Zoroaster, and descend- 
ants of the ancient Fire-worshipers of Persia, who are con- 
fined chiefly to the city and vicinity of Bombay, I shall 
speak in another place. 

This brief enumeration of some of the constituent ele- 
ments of the population of India will give little idea of 
that curious piece of mosaic upon which one looks when 
he lands in that interesting country. In Eastern Asia, in 
China or Japan, for instance, every thing is of one type. 
The Japanese or Chinaman that you meet on entering his 
country is the Japanese or Chinaman that you meet every 
where. His face is the same. His form is the same. His 
dress is the same. But every thing is different in India. 
The mixed crowd that we saw on the banks of the Hoogly 
as we reached Calcutta, with their varied costumes of di- 
verse colors, was only a picture of the great multitude that 
one sees in traveling through the country. The very as- 
pect of the people is a study of which one never grows 



THE NATIVES OF INDIA; CASTE, ETC. 247 

weary, it is so diversified. The many languages that he 
hears will remind him of the confusion of tongues at an 
earlier period of the race. The occupations of the people, 
so different from those to which he has been accustomed, 
will be to him an endless source of entertainment, if not of 
instruction. If he goes into their bazars and market-places, 
his curiosity will be still more excited. Their habits and 
customs, as far as he is allowed to observe them, will keep 
awake all his powers of observation. 

The costumes of the Hindoos are the same that were 
worn long centuries before the Christian era. That of the 
men usually consists of two pieces of wide cotton cloth, one 
of which is wrapped around the waist and falls to the calf 
of the leg, the other thrown loosely over the shoulder. A 
shawl or turban of some kind upon the head completes the 
dress. The women have a single piece of cloth, silk or cot- 
ton, plain or colored, eight or ten yards long, which is first 
partly tied around the waist, forming a garment that reach- 
es to the feet ; the rest is then passed around the body and 
over the head, falling down the back. A tight bodice is 
fi'equently worn underneath. The dress, especially that of 
the women, has a graceful appearance, and, as the colors 
are often bright, a company together presents a striking 
appearance. Until after the Mohammedan conquest no 
clothes that were cut or sewn were worn, and by some they 
are still regarded as unlawful. But loose trowsers are now 
frequently worn, even by Hindoos. The wealthier classes 
among the natives, both Mohammedan and Hindoo, indulge 
freely in dress, wearing the richest brocades and finest mus- 
lins, trimmed with gold and silver lace. They are all and 
equally fond of jewels and other ornaments, the women 
having no Hmit to their decoration except the extent of 
their means. The most valuable gems are usually set un- 
cut, some of them having been handed down in their rough 
state through many generations. The natives of India have 
an almost instinctive appreciation of pure and valuable 
gems, which are estimated, not according to their outward 



248 AROUND THE WOULD. 

aspect, but their intrinsic worth. The common people ex- 
hibit their fondness for jewehy by a profusion of orna- 
ments. They have rings in their ears and rings in their 
noses, necklaces, armlets, and anklets without number, wind- 
ing off with rings on their toes. The rings worn in the 
nose are usually put through the side of the nostril, and 
sometimes are several inches in diameter — extremely incon- 
venient, to say the least. The different races and religions 
may all be distinguished by their dress, even though it be 
of the same general style. The Hindoos, for instance, fast- 
en the tunic, or vest, upon the right side ; the Mohammed- 
ans on the left. 

The condition of woman among the natives of India, as 
in all the East, has been very defective'ly represented. She 
is nowhere elevated to her true position as the equal com- 
panion of man ; she is excluded from the ordinary social 
intercourse of life ; her apartments are usually in striking 
contrast with those of her assuming lords, barren of furni- 
ture, and cheerless in appearance ; her person is decked 
with costly apparel and more costly jewels, but only as a 
doll is ornamented to gratify the pride of the possessor ; 
among the poorer classes she is often made a mere beast of 
burden ; by none is she deemed worthy of education ; and 
yet, with all this, I was surprised, after all I had heard, to 
find that she exerts so great an influence, and that so many 
women, breaking through all the disadvantages and obsta- 
cles which surround them in Oriental life — not by ste23ping 
out of the narrow sphere assigned them, but by mere force 
of intellect and character — make their power felt. The 
truth is, that since the foundation of human society, woman 
has been a power in the world the world over. In India, 
as in China, the mother, ignorant as she is, has the mould- 
ing of the rising race, and not a few hold the sceptre in the 
household even over those who claim to be of a higher or- 
der by virtue of their sex. 

In the records of all the ages there are evidences of the 
great influence of woman among the Hindoos, and still 



to 



THE NATIVES OF INDIA; CASTE, ETC. 249 

more among the Mohammedans. The most beautiful, cost- 
ly, and magnificent monument ever erected to a mortal 
stands to-day in the heart of Hindostan. It was built by 
one of the Mogul emperors as the tomb and memorial of 
his wife. While she lived she held his heart and his throne 
in her hands, and when she died he poured out his wealth 
upon her grave. A still more remarkable woman was the 
wife of the Emperor Jehangeer, of whoiii the historian 
writes, " Her influence over the emperor must have been as 
great as the most ambitious of her sex could desire. He 
took no step without consulting her, and on every affair in 
which she took an interest her will was law. Previous to 
his marriage the emperor had been intemperate, capricious, 
and cruel. Through her influence his habits and conduct 
were greatly improved, if not entirely reformed. The cer- 
emonies, manners, and usages of the court were remodeled 
by her ; its splendor was increased by her arrangements, 
while its expenses were diminished by her management." 
These are exceptional cases ; but the influence of woman in 
the East, notwithstanding her general degradation and her 
disadvantages, is far greater than we are often told. Nor 
are the women of the higher classes so unhappy as is gen- 
erally supposed. Their wants are fewer than those of wom- 
en in more enlightened countries, and such as they feel are 
usually well supplied. Not being educated, they are gen- 
erally content, if not happy in their lot. 

There is still a large amount of wealth among the na- 
tives, although so many kings and princes have lost their 
territories and their revenues by the encroachments of the 
latest conquerors of the country. Some of them live lav- 
ishly, after the style of former sovereigns. I saw recentl}" 
a statement in one of the India papers that the Maharajah 
of Travancore (" May his weight never be less," exclaimed 
the editor), in anticipation of his investiture with the dig- 
nity, was weighed in scales against gold, and the gold dis- 
tributed among the Brahmins. The gold was coined into 
pieces varying from 9.28 grains to 78.65 grains. The whole 



250 AROUND THE WOULD. 

expense of the ceremony, inclnding the feeding of some 
ten thousand Brahmins, was acknowledged to be 160,000 
rupees, which, with other ceremonies that must be per- 
formed before the Maharajah's elevation, would amount to 
more than $150,000. 

The subject of food is one of paramount importance 
with all classes of the natives, not merely as to how it shall 
be obtained, but still more as to what shall be eaten. The 
Brahmins eat no animal food of any kind, having a relig- 
ious abhorrence of the destruction of life. Some of them 
have the water they drink carefully strained lest it should 
contain a gnat. Even eggs are forbidden, as possessing 
the germ of animal life. All Hindoos of every caste ab- 
stain from beef. Mohammedans, of course, eschew pork. 
Brahmins and others of high caste abstain from all intoxi- 
cating drinks, using only water or pure milk. In Bengal 
the people live largely upon rice, but in the north of India 
wheat, and barley, and other cereals are the staples. Very 
little animal food is used by any of the natives. 

The most striking characteristic of Hindoo society, if so- 
ciety it may be called — that which constitutes its very 
frame-work, as much as do the bones and tendons of the 
human system, the like to which is found among no other 
people, from the civilized to the savage — is caste. Most 
nations and tribes have their distinctions, some of them 
hereditary and strongly marked, but nowhere else is there 
such a system of caste as that which is found in India. It 
is very difficult to describe it so that it may be compre- 
hended by those who have not seen its workings, although 
its rules are well defined and more unchangeable than the 
laws of the Modes and Persians. 

The term caste is of modern origin, derived from the 
Portuguese in the thirteenth century, but the thing itself is 
as old as the Aryan invasion, centuries before the Christian 
era. The Aryans, from whatever quarter of Asia they 
came, brought with them a well-defined, social, and civil 
polity, which at once took root in a congenial soil, and has 



THE NATIVES OF INDIA; CASTE, ETC. £51 

continued to flourish until the present time. Its roots run 
deeper and are more firmly fixed than those of any other 
social system in existence. Caste, which is not without its 
advantages in such a state of society as that which has pre- 
vailed in India, is, nevertheless, the mighty barrier which 
opposes all progress and elevation, and the great obstacle 
in the way of the Gospel of Christ. 

According to the Laws of Menu, a work supposed to 
have been written about nine hundred years before Christ, 
Hindoo society is divided into four grand classes : 1. The 
Brahmins, who are said to have emanated from the mouth 
or head of Brahma, the Creator, and who are the chief of 
all created beings, the head of society, the teachers and 
priests for all others. A Brahmin is to be treated with the 
most profound respect even by kings; his life and person 
are protected by the severest laws in this world, and by the 
most tremendous denunciations for the world to come. 
They are supposed to have the power of blessing and curs- 
ing all others. 2. The second class, the Kshatryas, who 
sprang from the shoulders and arms of Brahma, are the 
military class, and have something of a sacred character ; 
they are the executive class. The Brahmins draw up and 
interpret the laws, but the Kshatryas administer them, so 
that these two classes are in a measure dependent upon 
each other. 3. The third class, the Vaishyas, sprang from 
the thighs or loins of Brahma, and are the mercantile class, 
the men of business. It is their province to carry on trade, 
cultivate the soil, keep cattle, and to acquire and practice 
all useful knowledge. 4. The fourth class, the Sitdras, 
sprang from the feet of Brahma. They are the servile 
class ; they are to serve the three higher classes, especially 
the Brahmins, and never to aspire to the dignity or priv- 
ileges of the others ; they are neither to acquire property, 
nor to acquire knowledge by reading, but to remain in an 
abject condition all their days and through all generations. 

These may be called the ideal laws of caste as found in 
the ancient books, but the two middle classes have now no 



252 AROUND THE WORLD. 

very distinct existence. The Brahmins are the only high 
caste, the otlier three having been subdivided until there 
are eighteen principal and more than a hundred minor 
classes, every trade, and profession, and employment form- 
ing a separate caste, from which no one can rise to a high- 
er, or even descend to a lower.- A man, by breaking the 
rules of his particular order, as by eating or drinking with 
a person of a lower caste, becomes an outcast, and will be 
equally spurned by those above and below him. The dis- 
tinction is hereditary, and does not depend upon any ac- 
quired position. No outward social rank confers the priv- 
ilege. The poorest Brahmin in India would consider him- 
self defiled for all time, and would be so considered by all 
others, if he were to eat with the Emperor of the Eussias. 
The Governor General of India could not find a man of 
the lowest caste who would be willing to partake of his 
hospitality. Brahmins are often found in comparatively 
humble positions in life, but the loftiest Hindoos who do 
not belong to their caste must pay them reverence. At 
Calcutta I saw a high-caste Hindoo who was employed by 
a wealthy merchant as a porter, but the rich Hindoo could 
never pass the high-caste man who was waiting at his door 
without making a humiliating sign of obeisance and of 
real subjection. 

The rules of caste are broken not by crime. A man 
may commit murder, adultery, theft, or perjury, and even 
be convicted of such crimes, without losing caste ; but if 
he violates any of the ceremonial laws, especially if he 
should eat with a European, or even with a Mohammedan 
of India, or with any one not belonging to his class, he 
would be degraded, and only by the most humiliating pro- 
cess of atonement, and by paying an enormous sum, could 
he be restored, if at all. A Brahmin was once forced by a 
European to eat meat. Although his offense was involun- 
tary, he could not be restored after three years' penance, 
even by the offer of forty thousand dollars ransom. He 
subsequently regained his former position by the payment 



THE NATIVES OF INDIA; CASTE, ETC. 253 

of a hundred thousand. While I was in India a high- 
caste Hindoo was present at an entertainment, partly so- 
cial and partly official, given by Europeans, and partook of 
some article of food in their society. He was afterward 
compelled to pay a heavy fine, and to eat the excrements 
of beasts, and humble himself before an idol with costly 
presents, before he could be recognized by those of his 
own caste. It is not merely the pride of a clan, or the 
rule of a sect; there is an inborn, ingrained feeling in a 
Hindoo which makes the laws of his caste seem inexora- 
ble and essential. He is bound by an invisible but mighty 
chain, which it is next to impossible for him to break. If 
he violates the rules of caste he is driven from home, and 
friends, and society, an object of contempt and execration, 
and any friend who should give him shelter or counte- 
nance would become an outcast. Neither parents, nor wife, 
nor children would be allowed to hold intercourse with 
him. 

This is the penalty that every Hindoo incurs who be- 
comes a Christian, and caste thus proves one of the most 
serious obstacles to the progress of the Christian religion. 
Even the lowest Sudra becomes an outcast if he enters 
into fellowship with Christians ; and partaking of the holy 
communion is an act which would effectually cut him off 
from all future intercourse with his own people. It is a 
severe test, but just such a test as was indicated by the 
promise of the Sa^dor : " Every one that hath forsaken 
houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, 
or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an 
hundred fold, and sliall inherit everlasting life." The Ro- 
man Catholics, on coming to India in the sixteenth cent- 
ury, finding the power of caste so strong, conformed to 
it, employing low-caste priests to minister to those of low 
caste, the Jesuit fathers carrying the sacraments to the 
sick and dying only in secret and by night. But it was 
justly said of them that they became Hindoos instead of 
making the Hindoos C]^ristians. Swartz and other Ger- 



254 ABOUND THE WORLD. 

man missionaries made some concessions to caste, but all 
English and American Protestant missionaries have con- 
sistently and persistently refused to give it any place in 
the Christian Church. 

Pariahs, a numerous class, are lower than the Sudras ; 
they are literally outcasts; but even they have their dis- 
tinctions and their rules, to vs^hich they rigidly adhere, al- 
though they occupy the lov^^est depths in the social scale. 

The system of caste is becoming undermined by educa- 
tion and by the influence of Christianity. Intercourse vdth 
intelligent Europeans is slowly operating upon the public 
mind to weaken its power. The introduction of railways, 
as I have abeady mentioned, by compelling men of all 
castes to sit together, often crowded into a compact mass, 
has done much to overcome the senseless notion that one 
man is spiritually defiled by touching another, or by any sim- 
ple act of social intercourse. TJie destruction of the sys- 
tem does not seem so hopeless or so remote as it once did. 



XVIII. 

CALCUTTA TO BENARES. 



I HAVE interjected some information in regard to the 
government and people of India in order that I may be 
more free to continue the narrative of the journey as far 
north as the Himalaya Mountains, and thence to Bombay. 

Down to the last hour of our stay in Calcutta, which had 
been protracted many days, our visit was full of interest. 
We had entered it perfect strangers, but among the Scotch 
and English residents, as well as among the American rep- 
resentatives, we had found warm friends, whose acquaint- 
ance we would gladly have cultivated longer, but our plans 
of travel through India made it necessary to improve the 
cool season. In that far-off land-there is a warmth of hos- 



CALCUTTA TO BENAMES. 255 

pitality that is all the more welcome so far from home, and 
we recall with great delight the pleasant social scenes in 
which it was our privilege to mingle. JSTationality was quite 
forgotten until we were invited specially to meet a party of 
American friends, when thoughts of the Stars and Stripes, 
and talk of cities and scenes over which they wave, and of 
mutual fiiends whose home was beyond all the seas, quick- 
ened the pulsations of our hearts. The United States have 
some noble representatives in Calcutta, of whom I would 
speak did not the rules of hospitality forbid. 

We regretted being obliged to leave just at the time we 
did, as we should miss the grand durbar to be held in hon- 
or of Prince Alfred, who was to arrive within a day or 
two. We had seen the displays at Shanghai and Hong 
Kong ; but his coming to Calcutta, the capital of England's 
richest possession, was the occasion of one of the most bril- 
liant scenes witnessed in India since the days of the old Mo- 
gul emperors. The ruling dignitaries from all parts of the 
empire were summoned to the capital, and with them were 
invited the native princes and rajahs of high degree, who 
came prepared to join in the demonstrations with all the 
show of Eastern pomp and circumstance. Trains of ele- 
phants had been sent from the north, and the procession 
was to be one of true Oriental magnificence. The scene at 
the Government House, when all the princes appeared in 
full costume and dignity, was dazzling beyond description. 

It was a beautiful moonlight night when we were driven 
to the banks of the Hoogly, to cross over to the cars of the 
East India Railway that were to take us twelve hundred 
miles to the north. The shadows had fallen over the streets 
of the City of Palaces ; the noisy tumult of the day, in 
which thousands of Orientals and Europeans had joined, 
making the thoroughfares a scene of gay confusion, was 
over ; in almost profound stillness we passed up the Chow- 
ringee Poad, by the Government House, through the main 
streets, past the site of the Black Hole, now occupied by 
stately buildings, and reached the bank of the river. The 



256 ABOUND THE WORLD. 

tide was out, and we were obliged to commit ourselves to 
tlie arms of the coolies, who carried us through the deep 
mud of the river to the small boat in which our luggage 
was awaiting us. We were not subjected to the trick which 
the boatmen played upon some other travelers. The price 
of ferriage had been agreed upon beforehand, but in the 
middle of the stream the ingenious Hindoo boatmen de- 
manded more pay, and gave their passengers the choice of 
complying with the demand or leaving the boat. The latter 
alternative was not altogether convenient in the circumstan- 
ces, and they were compelled to hand over the extra pay. 

Howrah, the terminus of the East India Railway, is di- 
rectly opposite Calcutta. It is a place of no importance in 
itself, but the railway station and the works of the road, 
with its extensive business, have built up a small town on 
the borders of the jungle. Here, in a dimly -lighted depot, 
and still more dimly-lighted cars, we arranged ourselves for 
a journey of twenty-four hours, our first experience of rail- 
way traveling since leaving the shores of America; 

Although the day had been exceedingly warm, and the 
sun's rays oppressive, if not dangerous, before morning we 
wrapped ourselves, in the sleeping-car, with all the clothing 
we could find, including traveling -shawls and blankets. 
During the winter months, over a great part of India, the 
nights become extremely cold, so that the warmest covering 
is agreeable. Not until the next morning, and after we 
,had noticed that the outside of our car attracted special at- 
tention at each stopping-place, did we discover that it bore 
the following placard : " Whole carriage, two compartments 
to Benares reserved : party of American ladies and gentle- 
men." For its exclusive use (though not on the principle 
of caste) we were indebted to the Idndness of a friend at 
Calcutta and the politeness of the railroad officials at How- 
rah. 

Our railway guide-book was to us something of a curios- 
ity from the novelty of the names of the towns that we 
passed : Pannaghur, Raneegnnge, Seeterampore, Ahmood- 



CALCUTTA TO BENARES. 257 

pore, Maliarajpore, Sahibgunge, Bhangulpore, and many 
other pores, not including Putty -muddy -fudge -pore, of 
which I have read. The ^wSixpore is as common in India 
as tow7% or ton in our own country, and the signification is 
much the same. 

There is httle in the scenery going north from Calcutta 
that is attractive. At one or two points the country breaks 
out into some demonstrations of grandeur, but the vast 
plain of the Ganges is almost wholly without variety. It 
is generally in a state of cultivation — not high cultivation, 
for the whole country has the appearance of exhaustion 
from its effort to sustain so many millions for thousands of 
years. Occasionally we passed through rich rice-fields, and 
the crops were green as in summer-time, but nowhere did 
we see the signs of good, thrifty tillage. One reason doubt- 
less is that the people are not landholders, and are not stim- 
ulated to keep the land up to the maximum of its produc- 
ing capacity. It was a novelty in agriculture to see cam- 
els yoked to the plow like oxen, and elephants working in 
the field with the sagacity of farmers. They are frequent- 
ly employed in the East to perform work which requii-es a 
discriminating eye and good judgment, and this, too, with- 
out an overseer. They are trained to lift and pile lumber 
with their trunks, which they do with as much exactness as 
if they used a plumb-line. 

A striking peculiarity of the great plain of India, and 
indeed of the whole of Asia, from the east to the west, as 
far as I have seen it, is the destitution of forests. With 
all the beauty of verdure and foliage which marks Japan, 
1 did not see, within the thousand miles of the emjDire that 
I traversed, a single forest of any extent. The whole coast 
of China, along which I sailed more than a thousand miles, 
and the interior, as far as I penetrated it, had only sparse- 
ly scattered trees. Farther inland there are heavily-tim- 
bered districts, but I saw none. There is not the sign of a 
forest from Calcutta to the mountains, although a large 
part of the country is in jungle. Even the Himalaya 

R 



258 ABOUND THE WORLD. 

Mountains that I subsequently crossed, and the second 
range that I ascended, were only sprinkled with trees, in 
comparison with the grand old dense forests of magnificent 
growth which form one of the sublime features of Ameri- 
can scenery. And to anticipate still farther ; Syria, includ- 
ing tlie mountains of Lebanon, is almost destitute of trees. 
All that remain of the cedars of Lebanon can be counted 
in a few moments. The plain of India, which led me into 
this digression, has scattered groves of palm, and acacia, 
and guava, and mango, and many other Oriental trees, but 
they are all planted for shade or fruit. Centuries ago the 
forests were cut down to supply the necessities of an im- 
mense population, but the soil does not appear to have 
the reproductive power that is a marked feature of our 
own. 

The night had gathered around us before we reached 
Mogul-Serai, where we were transferred to another short 
road, by which we reached the bank of the Ganges oppo- 
site Benares. Crossing by a bridge of boats, we entered by 
moonlight that ancient and magnificent city — in the eyes 
of a Hindoo, the holiest spot on the face of the globe. 

India has three capitals, although two of them are more 
historic than real ; Calcutta, the actual capital, the seat of 
the British viceroyalty ; Delhi, the Mohammedan capital, 
the seat of the old Mogul dynasty ; and Benares, the an- 
cient Hindoo capital, still regarded by Brahminists as the 
centre of the world. It is the Mecca of the Hindoos, the 
point to which their most sacred tlioughts turn, and where, 
of all places, they think it blessed to die. Indeed, it is an 
article of Hindoo faith that the vilest sinner, if he dies with- 
in a circle of ten miles around Benares, is sure of passing 
at once into everlasting bliss. Thousands are brought to 
the shores of the Ganges at this spot, that they may drink 
and bathe in its waters, and die within the charmed circle, 
with their eyes resting on the sacred river. As soon as 
the breath has departed, their bodies are burned upon its 
banks, and the ashes thrown to mingle with its waters. 



CALCUTTA TO BENARES. 259 

Water taken from the ghauts is carried by pilgrims over 
the whole land, and every where regarded as holy water. 

The city, one of great antiquity, has passed through 
many and great mutations. Hindooism, and Buddhism, 
and Mohammedanism have here successively reigned, the 
former all the while clinging to the soil as its own sacred 
inheritance. One ancient city, about five miles from the 
present site, has passed away, almost from memory, leaving 
scarcely a trace behind. I spent a morning among its 
sparse but massive ruins, accompanied by the Rev. Mr. Sher- 
ring, the learned antiquarian and historian of Benares, and 
the Eev. Mr. Hutton, both of the London Missionary Socie- 
ty, to whom I was indebted for most of the pleasure and 
interest of my sojourn. 

The modern city, if I may apply such a term to one that 
has stood unchanged for centuries, is the most magnificent 
in its architecture, and the most strictly Oriental in aspect 
of all the cities of India. There are grander structures at 
Agra and Delhi, and there is more of show at Lucknow, 
but nowhere else does the traveler find himself dreaming 
over so constantly the fancies which filled his imagination 
when, as a boy, he read the tales of the East, or when, in 
riper years, he lingered over the pages of its history. Per- 
haps I should make some qualification in speaking of the 
grandeur of this or of any Oriental city. In no other part 
of the world does distance lend so much enchantment to 
the view as in the East. Domes and minarets, and palaces 
with lofty, fretted porches, and palm-trees, and Oriental 
skies, form a picture that is truly enchanting; but when 
one attempts to thread the narrow winding alleys that are 
called streets, and is jostled at every step by men, and wom- 
en, and donkeys, and camels, and sacred bulls, to say noth- 
ing of an occasional elephant, whose huge dimensions ap- 
pear to require more than all the space between the walls, 
he loses sight of the magnificence, and is absorbed with 
the realities of the place. 

But, even with these quahfications, the views of Benares 



260 ABOUND THE WORLD. 

Avhich linger in my memory are the grandest recollections 
of all the cities of the East. As seen from the lofty min- 
aret of the Mosque of Aurungzebe, the domes of a thou- 
sand temples, the minarets of three hundred mosques, and 
palaces without number, which princes have built, that 
they may live and die in sight of the holy river, make up a 
magnificent picture. Tlie city is skirted with palms and 
acacias, and the deified peepul, all which add to the beau- 
ty of the scene. 

But, to see its real grandeur, one must look upon it 
from the Ganges. Benares is situated on a bluff, rising 
precipitously from the river. Its most massive structures 
have their foundations laid in the river itself, and rise up 
a hundred feet by terraces or ghauts, broad stone stair- 
ways, so that the palaces, and mosques, and temples over- 
hang the river. The style of architecture is gorgeous, and 
the whole scene so enchanting that, as one floats down the 
stream, he seems to be gazing upon a city built in fairy 
land. Even now, as I look back upon it, and attempt to 
trace with my pen the impressions that were made upon my 
mind, I seem to be dreaming. 

The city stretches two or three miles along the Ganges ; 
but its cliief magnificence is crowded into a single mile 
above the bridge of boats. Tlie English town known as 
Secrole stands entirely by itself, and is laid out with broad 
streets finely shaded, and a grand esplanade for military 
evolutions. In driving toward the river for the purpose of 
making the passage down the Ganges in an open dinghy 
to obtain this view, we came at length to the city proper, 
from which, by the narrowness of the streets, carriages are 
excluded as effectually as by impenetrable walls. Order- 
ing the carriage to make a circuitous route in order to 
meet us below, we took to our feet, and soon came to the 
DoorgTia Khond, a temple dedicated to the goddess Door- 
gha, but actually devoted to monkeys. Hundreds and 
thousands of these caricatures of humanity, made more im- 
pudent by being petted, if not worshiped by the Brahmins, 



CALCUTTA TO £ENAIiUS. 261 

wlio are their humble servants, filled the temple and the 
adjoining courts, and swarmed into the streets and neigh- 
boring grounds, and grinned at us from every house-top, 
and garden- wall, and tree. They have the perfect freedom 
of this part of the town. 

Taking a boat, we slowly descended the river, admiring 
the splendid panorama of Oriental architecture as it seemed 
to move past us. First comes the Mem Mandil, the observ- 
atory of Jai Singh, a grand structure, which still has, on its 
broad stone roof, charts of the heavens drawn by Indian 
astronomers in the days of the Mogul emperors. Large in- 
struments that were in use centuries ago are in its galleries. 
Here is the ghaut leading to the Golden Temple of Shiva, 
the reigning divinity of the city, where, on the following 
day, we saw the worshipers, some of them of high degree, 
bringing their offerings in successive groups, to be laid on 
the altar and washed with the water of the sacred stream. 
Hindoo temples cluster thick around, and sacred places, 
holy wells, and shrines, all visited by devotees, reminded 
us of Paul's visit to Athens, where " his spirit was stirred 
wdthin him when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry." 
The idols of Benares number more than half a million. 

Then comes a succession of ghauts, broad terraces and 
flights of steps of hewn stone which line the river's bank, 
and overhanging balconies, from which the princely pro- 
prietors look out upon the river which seems to them so 
near to Paradise. Here we reach the great Mosque of 
Aurungzebe, the Mohammedan pride of the city, whose 
foundation walls rise up from the water's edge, the build- 
ing towering up in massive beauty, and the minarets pier- 
cing the air still higher. Great numbers of Hindoos, men 
and women, have come down the long flights of steps to 
bathe in the Ganges, and all along we see them performing 
their ablutions with religious solemnities, hoping thus to 
wash away their sins. Others are worshiping the river 
itself, bowing often and repeating their prayers, absorbed 
in their devotions, and apparently unconscious of the pres- 



262 



AROUND TEE WORLD. 




THE 6KAHD MOSQUE. 



ence of others. Every now and then we come to a land- 
ing-place devoted to the burnmg of the Hindoo dead. We 
pass pile after pile made ready for the cremation. From 
some the smoke and flames are ascending to perfume the 
city, making this quarter of the town almost unendurable 
excepting to a. Hindoo. 

Leaving the river, we climbed one of the ghauts by a 
flight of more than a hundred steps, and re-entered the 
city, threading our way through the narrow streets. Pres- 
ently we encountered one of the Brahminy bulls, a race of 
animals held sacred as the gods, and, knowing the fanati- 



CALCUTTA TO BENABES. 



263 




BtrENING THE DEAD. 



cism of the Brahmins, who adore them, and the imperious 
nature of the bulls themselves, we gave him a wide berth. 
These animals, from time immemorial, have enjoyed the 
freedom of the city, no one being allowed to molest them 
in any wise, or even to interfere with their predatory hab- 
its. If they choose to enter a china-shop, no one must say 
nay, and if a grocer's stock happens to strike their fancy, 
the proprietor would not dare to interfere with their claims. 



264 AROUND THE WORLD. 

They are, consequently, always in good condition, living on 
the fat of the land. A few years since they had multiplied 
to such an extent, and had become so imperious in their 
exactions, that the English local authorities determined, if 
possible, to rid the city of the nuisance, or at least to tliin 
them out. But how to do this without exciting the horror 
of every Hindoo, and, perhaps, raising a rebellion, was the 
problem. To kill the Brahminy bulls would be a thousand 
times worse than to behead so many princes. At length 
the problem was solved ; it was decided to turn them out 
to graze in the jungle, where the tigers, who have no Brah- 
mmical scruples, made short work with them, and the city 
was relieved. 

We had ordered our carriage to meet us at the bazar, 
near the residence of the Rajah Sir Deo IS^arain Singh, a 
distinguished native prince. During the terrible mutiny 
of 1857 he had remained faithful to the British govern- 
ment, and had rendered important service, for which he 
was made a Knight Commander of the Star of India. The 
queen had made personal acknowledgment of his services 
by sending an elaborate piece of silver plate bearing an ap- 
propriate inscription. The gentleman w^ho accompanied 
us, a resident of Benares, being on terms of familiar ac- 
quaintance with the rajah, proposed a call, and, nothing 
loth, we complied. 

Passing through an outer court-yard, in which several 
elephants were in waiting, we entered a large flower-gar- 
den, rather stiiBy arranged, but admirably kept, and, as- 
cending a flight of steps, were met by the rajah's eldest 
son, who has since succeeded to the title and honors of the 
father. Giving us a cordial welcome, and inviting us to 
the reception-room, he ordered refreshments and enter- 
tained us with conversation in English, expressing great re- 
gret that his father was absent on his estates in the conn- 
try. He gave an order to one of the servants, who pres- 
ently returned with two glittering silver garlands called 
malas, and the young rajah, throwing them over our necks. 



CALCUTTA TO BENARES. 265 

said, " This is the way we express hospitality in our coun- 
try." We retained them and wore them away. Another 
servant brought perfumery for our handkerchiefs, and, as 
we were leaving, we were presented with bouquets of flow- 
ers from the garden. 

The next morning, as we were at breakfast, word was 
brought that the rajah's servants were entering the com- 
pound with baskets on their heads, and they appeared with 
presents from the young prince. There were all sorts of 
vegetables, a box of Cabool grapes, raisins, nuts, a large cir- 
cular cake of rock candy, etc., etc. About two o'clock he 
called upon us in a carriage, with his attendants. Being a 
high-caste Hindoo, we were unable to show him the usual 
rites of hospitality, but we entertained him according to 
the best of our ability, and gave him a hearty invitation to 
visit our country, where we might reciprocate his atten- 
tions. 

As he was leaving, he informed us that one of his ele- 
phants should be at our service if we would like to make 
an excursion into the country. Soon the elephant, with 
mahout and another attendant, appeared. He was a noble 
specimen of his species, and, somewhat peculiar, mottled or 
spotted on his breast. Obedient to command, he came 
down upon his belly, and even then we required a ladder 
to mount to the howdah, the tower upon his back. This 
was our first experience in elephant riding, and, although 
the excursion was one of great pleasure, the motion was 
just about as agreeable as that of a boat in a short chop- 
ping sea, or, to draw a comparison from the land, it was 
very much like making an excursion upon the back of a 
small mountain. 

I find that in the East the elephant, while he has full 
credit for his sagacity, does not bear the high reputation 
for fidelity which is current in the West. Even the best 
of the race, and those which have been long domesticated, 
are liable to freaks which have the appearance of insanity, 
in which they sometimes attack their most tried friends. 



266 ABOUND THE WOULD. 

The year before, an old schoolmate of my own, who has 
been many years in Siam as a missionary physician, and 
whom I expected to visit on my way. Dr. S. K. House, hav- 
ing occasion to go out several days' journey from Bankok to 
perform a surgical operation, took the usual mode of con- 
veyance for a long journey, with suitable attendants. Oue 
morning, having spent the night in his tent, as he was pre- 
paring to start, he passed by his elephant, which, for some 
unaccountable reason, struck him down with his trunk and 
tore him fearfully with his tusks. He was obliged to per- 
form for himself the office of a surgeon, sewing up his own 
wounds, and it was several days before he could be moved 
from the scene of his injury. This treachery on the part 
of elephants may be owing to the fact that they are usually 
taken wild and subdued by severe discipline, and probably 
are not thoroughly tamed. They may lay up the remem- 
brance of their subjugation and injuries, and watch for an 
opportunity to avenge themselves. 

But to return to the rajah. I was pained, on reaching 
home, to receive the intelligence of the death of the noble 
Hindoo, the father, through the following tribute to his 
worth which appeared in the Friend of Iiviia : 

"The death of Rajah Sir Deo Narain Singh, K. C. S. I, 
which occurred at Benares suddenly on Sunday evening, Au- 
gust 28th, is a great loss, not only to the city, but to India 
generally. During many years he occupied a foremost place 
among the natives in all matters connected with the prosper- 
ity of the country. He was a man of very liberal views. 
His mind was noble and benevolent, and he had no sympa- 
thy whatever with those mere party questions which injure 
one class of the people by benefiting another. Of good nat- 
ural intelligence, frank and courteous, enthusiastic and enter- 
prising, his opinions on all matters that came before him 
were those of a thoughtful, fearless, and honest man. Sin- 
cerity — valuable every where, and especially so in India — 
was his distinguishing characteristic. He has been cut off in 
the prime of life and in the maturity of his powers. On sev- 
eral occasions of difficulty and danger he rendered invalu- 
able assistance to the government, and, indeed, he was ever a 



CALCUTTA TO BUNABES. 26T 

stanch and loyal friend. In the year 1857 he was the chief 
native adviser of the English officials in Benares, and it is 
not too much to affirm that the safety of the city and neigh- 
borhood during those perilous times was, to a large extent, 
secured by his devotion and counsel. For the important 
services he then rendered, the government conferred upon 
him the title of rajah. He was one of the first native mem- 
bers of the Legislative Council of India. The part which he 
took in the debates of the council, during his term of office, 
proved him to be a man of independent thought, of clear 
judgment, and of earnest sound convictions. No man in 
Benares was for a moment to be compared with him in zeal 
for public welfare. His house was open to all comers who 
visited him for consultation and advice. For eight years he 
presided over the Benares Institute, and was the life and 
soul of that society. His death gave a sudden shock to the 
city, and both Europeans and natives alike felt that they had 
lost their truest and most faithful friend." 

I subsequently received a copy of the Friend of India 
containing an account of the investiture of the son with 
the titles and dignities of the father, " in recognition of the 
faithful and eminent services of the late rajah." He is 
now the Eajah Sumbhoo Narain Singh. May he long wear 
his honors as worthily as his father ! 

The last morning that we spent in Benares we devoted 
to visiting some of the Hindoo temples, in which the city 
abounds. They are erected in honor of all sorts of gods ; 
many of them by private munificence, in fulfillment of 
vows or under some religious impulse. Some of the tem- 
ples of Benares are costly, and have a show of splendor 
about them, especially the Golden Temple ; but it is more 
in show than reality. Even the Golden Temple, which is 
the pride of the Hindoos of Benares, and which more than 
all others is resorted to by pilgrims from afar, is not at- 
tractive either in its external or its internal appearance. 
The pointed dome, which is characteristic of this style of 
buildings, is not without beauty of outline, but there is usu- 
ally nothing in the surroundings of these temples to make 
them pleasing, and they are far from being neatly kept. 



268 



AROUND THE WOULD. 




A UI^D^O ILMILL 



In almost all respects they are in striking contrast with the 
mao;;niiicent mosques of the Mohammedans in the same 
cities, and there is a good reason for the contrast. When 
the Mohammedans subdued and took possession of India, 
they destroyed the monuments of the ancient religion, 
using the material for building their mosques, and at the 
same time prohibiting the erection of temples, excepting of 
very limited dimensions. Throughout the North of India, 
therefore, the Hindoos scarcely have any thing that can be 
called temples; they are all diminutive structures — mere 
shrines. Out of the hundreds or thousands that I saw, I 



CALCUTTA TO BENARES. 269 

think there was not one that would measure more than 
twenty-five feet in its greatest diameter. It is different in 
Southern India, where some of the most extensive struc- 
tures in the world are to be found. 

The ordinary services at the temple are not elaborate. 
The worsliipers present offerings of flowers, fruits, jewels, 
money, etc., which become the perquisite of the priests. 
The life of a Hindoo is one of ceaseless devotion to his re- 
ligion, and the visit to the temple may be only the last act 
in a long service or pilgrimage, or the initial step to some 
such enterprise, and consumes but little time. There are, 
indeed, occasions of grand ceremonial when the gods are 
taken out for an airing, but the shrines themselves afford 
no room for any gathering of the people. The assem- 
blages take place at some consecrated spot, like the banks 
of the sacred rivers. As we approached the Golden Tem- 
ple, we found it occupied by a small party of distinguished 
pilgrims from the up-country ; and when they had retired 
it was flooded with the water of the Ganges, which had 
been poured upon their offerings to sanctify them. The 
temple, within and without, was in a very filthy condition. 

Benares has a distinction in Asiatic history as the spot 
where the founders of Buddhism co-mmenced the propaga- 
tion of that religion. At one period it was firmly estab- 
lished in various parts of India, but at length was driven 
out to seek its home in more Eastern countries, where it is 
still exerting its sway over hundreds of millions. The ru- 
ins of Sarnath, an extensive Buddhist establishment near 
Benares, and the monasteries cut into the rocky mountains 
in the west of India, which I subsequently visited from 
Bombay, bespeak the firm hold which it once had upon tlie 
people among wliom it originated. 

The gold brocades of Benares are among the most costly 
and elegant fabrics of the world, rich and exquisite beyond 
description, and as costly as they are beautiful. As the 
merchants took them out of the safes and displayed them 
to us, we could almost imagine that the Mogul dynasty, in 



270 



ABOUND THE WOBLD. 




BLINS NEAR 1 r> \KrS 



all its gorgeous splendor, was to be re-established ; we could 
not imagine how otherwise there could be a demand for 
such fabrics. Some of them were held at 900 rupees, or 
$450, the square yard. 



BENARES TO ALLAHABAD. 271 



XIX. 

BENAEES TO ALLAHABAD. 

The night is the time for travel in India at all seasons of 
the year. As there was little that was attractive in the 
scenery through which we were to pass, we left Benares at 
the same hour of the evening at which we had entered it. 
We crossed the Ganges in the beautiful moonlight, which 
spread a wondrously weird sheen over the massive monu- 
ments to the false prophet, upon its thousand diminutive 
Hindoo temples and shrines, and along its magnificent 
ghauts. Were we in the mystical land of the Arabian 
Nights, or in tlie dream-land of Hindoo mythology, or in 
the midst of the splendor of the old Mogul dynasty ? We 
could scarcely say until we had crossed the Ganges, and 
entered the d^pot to take our seats in the railway cars. 
This was a modern reality. 

At Chunar we passed a fortress celebrated alike in Mo- 
hammedan history and Hindoo mythology, near which, upon 
a lofty eminence, the Supreme Being is supposed to be seat- 
ed personally, though invisibly, a portion of every day, and 
the remainder of the day at the sacred city of Benares. 

Near Mirzapore, a few miles farther north, is the temple 
of the Goddess Kali, which in former times was the resort 
of the Thugs, the discovery of whose existence as a com- 
plete and extensive organization not many years since struck 
terror into the hearts of all the residents of India. To this 
temple they came to worship, and to present their offerings 
to their tutelary divinity before entering on any murderous 
expedition — a fearful instance of the power of a false sys- 
tem of religion to blind its devotees to the nature of crime. 
The goddess is represented in Bengal with a hideous black 
face and mouth streaming with blood, a very fury in ap- 



272 AROUND THE WORLD. 

pearance. Tliuggism, if not a religious organization, was 
the next thing to it. The fraternity, while living by mur- 
der and robbery, were scrupulous in all their religious ob- 
servances. They were even more pious in their way than 
the banditti of Italy, who would not for all the world eat 
meat on Friday, while they would not hesitate to cut off the 
ears of a refractory traveler, after robbing him, on any day 
in the week. The Thugs never undertook a criminal expe- 
dition until they had propitiated their Goddess Kali, with 
whom they afterward divided the spoil ; and, being intense- 
ly superstitious, they were easily deterred from the commis- 
sion of a crime, not by any enormity which it involved, but 
by the slightest evil omen. If one of their number hap- 
pened to sneeze as they were starting upon an expedition, 
or if they met a woman with an empty pitcher, or heard an 
ass bray, the expedition was abandoned. Tliey were not 
ordinary robbers. Their depredations were made only upon 
travelers, natives as well as foreigners, and murder was al- 
ways the first step in the robbery. This is the explanation 
of the secrecy that they maintained so long. The pirate's 
maxim, " Dead men tell no tales," was one of their funda- 
mental principles. They invariably put their victims to 
death, usually by strangling with a cord, and then buried 
them out of sight. Each gang had its, je?nadar, or leader ; 
its guru, or teacher ; its sothas, or entrappers ; its hhuttotes, 
or stranglers; and its lughaees, or grave-diggers. These 
would usually meet at some town, often as pretended stran- 
gers to one another, select their victims, fall into company 
with them, and travel for days before seizing the opportu- 
nity for their meditated crime. 

The discovery of this extensive organization was made in 
the year 1829. Individuals, and even gangs, had been de- 
tected from time to time, and, on being convicted of mur- 
der, had been executed, but it had never been known that 
all over India a secret association existed, with officers, and 
regulations, and pass-words, which had been devoted to this 
species of crime. One evening in the year named above, 



BENARES TO ALLAHABAD. 273 

as Major Sleeman, the Deputy Commissioner of the English 
for the Saugor District, was seated at the door of his tent, 
a native came np to him in great haste, threw himself at 
his feet, and begged to make a communication of great im- 
portance, but to his ear alone. Mrs. Sleeman, who was 
present, retired, and the man then confessed that he was 
the leader of a gang of Thugs, who were near, and that the 
grove in which Major Sleeman's tent was pitched was fill- 
ed with the graves of those who had been murdered from 
time to time. A search was made, and his words proved to 
be true. The gang was apprehended, information was ob- 
tained from one and another source until the proof of the 
existence of the organization in nearly every province and 
district of India was obtained. A knowledge of their pro- 
ceedings, their regulations, their secret signs, and of the 
fearful extent of their crimes, was obtained and laid before 
government. The most thorough measures for their sup- 
pression were adopted, and carried out, it is now believed, 
with perfect success. Every known Thug throughout India 
was apprehended, and although the number was so great 
that condign punishment could not be meted out to all, the 
organization was broken up. The least guilty were formed 
into a sort of penal colony at Jubbulpore, where they were 
kept employed at various trades, secluded from intercourse 
with their former companions and with the community gen- 
erally. It is hoped that, in the course of time, the traditions 
of this iniquity will so die out as to preclude the possibility 
of its revival. No statistics of the number of its victims 
during the ages in which it has had an organized existence 
could possibly be obtained, but the number must have been 
very great. 

The following case, which I find in the records of Colonel 
Sleeman, will give an idea of the course which these mur- 
derers pursued, and of the remorseless perseverance with 
which they followed up their victims. It is drawn from 
the confessions of a Thug who had been apprehended and 
convicted of the crime. 

S 



274 AROUND THE WORLD. 

"A stout Mogul officer, of noble bearing and singularly 
handsome countenance, on his way from the Punjaub to 
Oude, crossed the Ganges at .Gurmuktesur Ghaut, near Mee- 
rut, to pass through Mei-adabad and Bareilly. He was mount- 
ed on a fine Turkee horse, and attended by his Mtniutgar 
and groom. Soon after crossing the river he fell in with a 
small party of well-dressed and modest-looking men going 
the same road. They accosted him in a respectful manner, 
and attempted to enter into conversation with him. He had 
heard of Thugs, and told them to be off. They smiled at 
his idle susJDicions, and tried to remove them, but all in vain ; 
the Mogul was determined; they saw his nostrils swelling 
with indignation, took their leave, and followed slowly. 

"The next morning he overtook the same number of men, 
but of a diflerent appearance, all Mussulmans. They accost- 
ed him in the same respectful manner, talked of the dangers 
of the road, and the necessity of their keeping together and 
taking the advantage of the protection of any mounted gen- 
tleman tha4 happened to be going the same way. The Mo- 
gul officer said not a word in reply, resolved to have no com- 
panions on the road. They persisted; his nostrils began 
again to swell, and, putting his hand to his sword, he bid 
them all be off, or he would have their heads from their 
shoulders. He had a bow and quiver full of aiTows over his 
shoulder, a brace of loaded pistols in his waist-belt, and a 
sword by his side, and was altogether a very formidable- 
looking cavalier. 

"In the evening another party that lodged in the same se- 
rai became very intimate with the butler and groom. They 
were going the same road, and, as the Mogul overtook them 
in the morning, they made their bows respectfully, and be- 
gan to enter into conversation with their two friends, the 
groom and the butler, who were coming up behind. The 
Mogul's nosti'ils began again to swell, and he bid the stran- 
gers be off. The groom and butler interceded ; for their 
master was a grave, sedate man, and they wanted compan- 
ions. All would not do, and the strangers fell in the rear. 

"The next day, when thay had got to the middle of an 
extensive and uninhabited plain, the Mogul in advance, and 
his two servants a few hundred yards behind, he came up to 
a party of six poor Mussulmans sitting weeping by the side 
of a dead comj)anion. They were soldiers from Lahore on 
their way to Lucknow, worn down by fatigue in their anxi- 
ety to see their wives and children once more after a long 
and painful service. Their companion, the hope and prop of 



BENARES TO ALLAHABAD. 275 

his family, had sunk under the fatigue, and they had made a 
o-rave for him ; but they were poor unlettered men, and una- 
ble to repeat the funeral service from the holy Koran ; would 
his highness but perform this last office for them, he would, 
no doubt, find his reward in this world and in the next. The 
Mogul dismounted. The body had been placed in its prop- 
er position, with the head toward Mecca. A cai-pet was 
spread ; the Mogul took off his bow and quiver, then his pis- 
tols and sword, and placed them on the ground near the 
body ; called for water, and washed his feet, hands, and face, 
that he might not pronounce the holy words in an unclean 
state. He then knelt down and began to repeat the funeral 
service in a clear, loud voice. Two of the poor soldiers 
knelt by him, one on each side, in silence. The other four 
went off a few paces to beg that the butler and groom would 
not come so near as to interrupt the good Samaritan at his 
devotions. All being ready, one of the four, in a low under- 
tone, gave the shirnee (the signal), the handkerchiefs were 
thrown over their necks, and in a few minutes all three, the 
Mogul and his servants, were dead, and lying in the grave 
in the usual manner — the head of one at the feet of one be- 
low him. 

" All the parties they had met on the road belonged to a 
gang of Jumaldehee Thugs, of the kingdom of Oude. In 
despair of being able to win the Mogul's confidence in the 
usual way, and determined to have the money and jewels 
which they knew he carried with him, they had adopted this 
plan of disarming him— dug the grave by the side of the 
road in the open plain, and made a handsome young Mussul- 
man of the party the dead soldier. The Mogul, being a very 
stout man, died almost without a struggle, and his servants 
made no resistance." 

It was past midnight, but a night almost as bright as 
the day, when we rolled over the magnificent bridge that 
spans the Jumna at Allahabad, just above the imion of its 
waters with those of the Ganges. The bridge is one of 
the most costly railway structures in or out of India. It 
is built of iron imported from England. The foundations 
of the high stone piers on which it rests were laid in the 
ooze of the river, which, in laying the foundations, seemed 
to be almost without bottom. The rise of water in the 
rainy season, which sometimes reaches forty feet, made it 



276 AROUND THE WOULD. 

necessary to have elevated piers, and the bridge, which is 
three quarters of a mile in length, makes a fine appearance 
in the ordinary stages of the' river. 

We were delighted, on reaching the station at so late 
an hour of the night, to find the Rev. Mr. Walsh awaiting 
lis. I had known him when a boy, but long ago he turned 
his steps eastward to preach the Gospel in the land of the 
Hindoos and the Mohammedans. Since the death of an- 
other friend and classmate, the Rev. Dr. Owen, Mr. Walsh 
has been the father of the American Mission at Allahabad. 
Taking us in his gharry, we drove mile after mile through 
the broad streets of this capital, until it seemed that the 
streets had no end ; and when under these quiet Eastern 
skies, in the beauty of the night and in our pleasant con- 
verse, we almost wished they were endless. At length we 
reached the bungalow of the American Mission, and found 
a resting-place in an American home. 

Allahabad (which means the City of God), a name given 
to it by the Mohammedan conquerors of India, is one of 
the sacred places of the Hindoos. It has been a point of 
much importance in all the changes which have occurred 
among the rulers of Hindostan, and has been fortified from 
time to time under different dynasties. The present for- 
tress, a mile and a half in circuit, situated at the junction 
of the Ganges and Jumna Rivers, was built by Akbar, one 
of the Mogul emperors, three hundred years ago, on the 
site of an ancient Hindoo fortification. It has been re- 
modeled and strengthened by the English, and has been of 
incalculable value to them. During the mutiny of 185Y it 
proved the salvation of many of the English residents at 
Allahabad, and contributed greatly to the final recovery of 
British power in India. It has acquired much importance 
within a few years by the removal of the capital from Agra 
to this place. A new city, with broad avenues and spa- 
cious squares, has been laid out, and large public buildings, 
including some of the finest barracks in India, have been 
in course of erection. Many beautiful bungalows have 



BENARES TO ALLAHABAD. '277 

been bnilt, and are surrounded by extensive grounds ; and 
although, like our own Washington, Allahabad, for the pres- 
ent, " is a city of magnificent distances" rather than an im- 
posing capital, it bids fair to become one of the finest towns 
in the peninsula. In the mutiny, every foreign residence 
was destroyed, with every public building, excepting the 
Masonic Hall, which the natives did not dare to attack on 
account of the spirits that were supposed to guard it. This 
building was pointed out to me in a remote part of the 
town, a lonely monument of the terrible scenes which it 
survived. 

Allahabad has long been one of the most important mis- 
sion stations of the American Presbyterian Church. It 
was selected not only on account of its large population, 
but as a centre of influence for the whole north of India, 
and in one respect it has a peculiar importance. It is the 
chief place of pilgrimage, and through the multitudes that 
gather liere every year an influence may be sent out into 
every part of the land. Situated at the confluence of the 
two most sacred rivers of Hindostan — the Ganges and the 
Jumna — the spot is regarded by all Hindoos as one of the 
holiest places in the world. They come to it from all parts 
and at all times of the year to bathe where the two rivers 
meet, and thus to wash away their sins. There is an annu- 
al mela or gathering at this place in the month of January, 
when hundreds of thousands come together; and every 
twelfth year, owing to some propitious conjunction of the 
stars, there is a special gathering, when the number of the 
pilgrims is sometimes counted even by millions. 

I first reached Allahabad in December, on my way to 
the north ; but, after visiting the Himalaya Mountains, I 
returned to be present at the opening of the great mela on 
the 12th of January. It is held on a vast plain — a tongue 
of land lying between the two rivers, which in the rainy 
season is completely overflowed. When the pilgrims as- 
semble they pitch their tents upon the plain, and for the 
space of a month it is the most populous city in India. I 



278 ABOUND THE WORLD. 

learned afterward, from one of the missionaries, that two 
millions were present at one time, and I could easily com- 
prehend it from what I had seen. 

I took my stand, one day, in a thoroughfare leading to 
the grounds, to see the people pouring in by crowds, many 
of whom came from hundreds of miles up and down the 
countiy. I had seen them far up to the north, the w^eek 
before, coming down in large companies. They continued 
to arrive at all hours of day and night for days and even 
for weeks, like a continuous procession. Some of the 
wealthier people came on elephants, others on camels, 
many of them, especially the aged and feeble, in carts 
drawn by bullocks or cows, but most of them on foot, 
with the dust and dirt of their long pilgrimage upon them. 
In the vast crowd were thousands oi faquirs or devotees 
who were almost naked and covei-ed with dirt, their hair 
matted with filth, more disgusting in their appearance than 
swine, and accounting themselves all the more holy be- 
cause of the excessive filth ' in which they had chosen to 
live. Bathing in muddy streams and living in abominable 
filth seem to be the two prominent articles in the creed of 
the Hindoos, at least of those who pretend to eminent holi- 
ness — the very reverse of the Christian maxim that " clean- 
liness is a part of godliness." More abominable or more 
horrid specimens of human nature than these faquirs can 
scarcely be conceived ; and the more painful part of it 
was, that the poor ignorant people had been taught to re- 
gard these filthy, depraved brutes in human shape as pre- 
eminently holy. Some of the devotees had made their pil- 
grimage all the way upon their hands and knees, others by 
dragging themselves along the ground, and one man, per- 
haps more, by measuring his length like an inch worm, ly- 
ing down, making a mark at his head, and then lying down 
with his toes at the mark, and so making his slow progress 
toward the consecrated spot. One man whom I saw at the 
mela had held his right hand above his head eleven years, 
and was, of course, accounted an eminent saint. 



BENABES TO ALLAHABAD. <^ij^ 

The Brahmins keep up these festivals for the sake of 
making money out of the pilgrims. Each one is required 
to pay his tax as he comes to bathe, and so a large revenue 
comes to the coffers of the Brahmins of the district. The 
faquirs, too, extort money from the people on the ground 
of their sanctity, but a more transparent set of knaves 1 
never looked upon. They showed it in their countenances ; 
but long practice and established custom had given them 
an ascendency and power over the people. One of the 
first acts of a pilgrim (the faquirs excepted) is to have his 
head shaven by regularly appointed barbers, under the as- 
surance that for every hair he loses he secures to himself a 
million of years in Paradise ; a favor for which he is com- 
pelled to make a return in money according to his means. 
By this operation the pockets of the pilgrims are as well 
fleeced as their heads. Then comes the bathing; and a 
sorrowful sight are those tens of thousands of poor, sin- 
burdened heathen, going down into the water and devout- 
ly washing themselves, in the vain hope of washing away 
their guilt. All classes and all ages go down into the wa- 
ter ; even the women of the higher class being exempt, for 
the time, from the law of custom which compels them to 
live in seclusion. I longed for the gift of speaking, not 
only to their ears, but to their hearts, of that fountain for 
sin and for uncleanness which has been opened by a dying 
Saviour, and which is free and near to all, without any pain- 
ful pilgrimage. But this is done by faithful missionaries, 
who have their tents pitched at various points among the 
crowd, and who improve this occasion for imparting relig- 
ious instruction, and not without success. 

After the pilgrims have been shaven, and have bathed 
and performed other religious services, they devote them- 
selves to social intercourse, to traffic, and often to all man- 
ner of wickedness, so that the mela becomes a mixed 
scene, the religious part bearing but a slight proportion 
to the whole. I believe that the whole system of idol- 
atry in India is now sustained more by the avarice of 



280 AROUND THE WORLD. 

Brahmins, who become wealthy from their perquisites and 
by the incidental gains connected with it, than by the re- 
ligious feelings of the people. Priestcraft has a mighty 
power in keeping up rites which, if left to the choice even 
of ignorant people, would speedily come to an end. At 
the great mela at Allahabad I heard many confess that 
Christianity was better than their religion, but they are 
bound by education, and custom, and caste. It is not a 
slight evidence, though only one of many, that the religion 
of Christ has taken hold of the people of India, to see 
preaching-tents established by the Hindoos, with readers 
and preachers, who endeavor to counteract the preaching 
of the Gospel by drawing away and holding the attention 
of the people. I had seen the same thing in China. In 
the city of Canton the Chinese have built a beautiful chajD- 
el, in all respects like the Christian, where they have regu- 
lar preaching. Amid the melancholy scenes connected 
with this great aggregation of heathenism at Allahabad, 
there is much that gives promise of a bright day at hand, 
when the gross darkness that has so long covered the peo- 
ple will be dispelled. 

The only witness against the British government for its 
complicity with the idolatry of the Hindoos that I saw re- 
maining in India was at Allahabad. In the fort there is 
a passage leading to extensive subterranean vaults, which 
from time immemorial have been regarded with great ven- 
eration by the natives. They pretend that the passage leads 
to Benares, nearly a hundred miles distant, and that a third 
sacred river once coursed through it. The multitudes who 
come on pilgrimage to Allahabad all enter this vault, pay 
their devotions, and make some offering, on which they 
pour the water of the Ganges and the Jumna to consecrate 
the gift. There are numerous shrines, all, I believe, of the 
Lingmn, the obscene object of Hindoo worship, which are 
constantly covered with flowers and kept wet with the holy 
water. Formerly the pilgrims who entered were required 
to pay a tax of one rupee each to the government, whicli 



THE MUTINY; CAWNPORE AND LUCENOW. 281 

became an immense revenue. The tax lias been abolished, 
but I saw these obscene pagan shrines still standing, and 
the devotees in crowds presenting their offerings and pay- 
ing their worship before them with the British flag flying 
over their heads on the fort. It is a reproach and a shame 
to a Christian government, and the more so because con- 
nected with a fortress which belongs exclusively to the 
government. 



THE MUTINY: CAWNPORE AND LUCKNOW. 

After I had been several weeks in India, the question 
was asked me, by one who naturally enough wished to know 
how I had been impressed with the country and its people, 
" What, of all that you have seen, has struck you most for- 
cibly ?" I replied, " The fact that no two persons seem to 
entertain the same ideas with regard to any subject." 

I was never in a country where there is such a diversity 
of sentiment in regard to questions of public policy, the 
right mode of dealing with social problems, or even in re- 
gard to many matters of fact. Scarcely any thing appears 
to be settled in the general opinion of the people — the Eu- 
ropeans, I mean. The very names of places and things are 
without any established rules. Every writer has his own 
orthography, and every speaker his own pronunciation of 
native words. The languages of the country have never 
yet found their equivalents in the English tongue. I was 
told that there are sixty-four different ways of spelling the 
name of Lodiana, a town in the north of India, and that 
each one has good authority for it. I have seen the name 
of the beautiful valley of the Dehra Doon, that I visited 
among the Himalaya Mountains, written Dehrah, Deirah, 
Deira, Deyra, Deyrah, Dera, and so on ad lihitum. 

But in no respect was I more struck with the diversity 



282 AROUND THE WORLD. 

of sentiment among intelligent and well-informed persons 
than in regard to the cause of the terrible mutiny of 1857, 
which came so near extinguishing the power of the English 
in the East. I not only felt a strong desire, in going over 
the ground where its fearful scenes were enacted, to learn 
more than I had known before of the causes which led to 
it, the impelling motives which fired the natives, but I im- 
agined that I should be able to obtain such knowledge by 
personal intercourse with the residents, many of whom had 
been there during its progress and suppression. But al- 
most every intelligent man in India seemed to have his 
own theory in regard to the matter, and very few, on com- 
paring notes, would be found to agree. It certainly speaks 
well for the independence of thought in that land, but it 
shows also that this awful episode in the history of the 
British occupation of India is still involved in much mys- 
tery. And this is just about the truth in regard to the 
matter. I doubt if any rebellion of equal extent and im- 
portance ever before occurred which could not be traced 
more directly and more clearly to its origin. 

The nearest approximation that I made to a definite 
opinion of my own, after careful investigation of all the 
sources of information, and all the opinions current, is, that 
the mutiny was a sort of blind movement on the part alike 
of Mohammedans and Hindoos (though more the former 
than the latter) to cast off the foreign yoke which had been 
placed on their necks by a series of usurpations, too often 
attended with the very crimes of which the natives them- 
selves had been guilty in past ages. One monarch after 
another had been dethroned by the agents of the East In- 
dia Company, and his territory added to the Company's 
possessions, or made tributary. It had become clear that 
the same power, unless absolutely destroyed, must cover the 
whole land, and the opportunity was seized, when the En- 
glish military force was reduced to its lowest limits, to rise 
and attempt to annihilate the foreign element. In the 
spring of 1857 there were only about twenty thousand 



THE MUTINY; GA WNFOHU AND LUCKNU W. 283 

British troops in all India. The army was composed al- 
most altogether of native troops. There was not a Euro- 
pean regiment at Calcutta, nor at Benares, nor at Delhi, 
nor at many other important points. There must have 
been conference or conspiracy for some time previous, for 
the mutinous spirit manifested itself almost simultaneously 
from one end of Hindostan to the other. The train had 
been laid, and the explosion passed with frightful rapidity 
from one city and district to another. 

The occasion for such a rising, too, was opportune in 
more respects than one. A prophecy had long been in cir- 
culation among the natives that on the hundredth anniver- 
sary of the battle of Plassey, which secured the supremacy 
of the English in India, their power would be destroyed. 
That battle took place June 23, 1757, and the eventful day 
was drawing nigh. The success of such a revolt seemed 
the more assured by the defenseless state of the English in 
the country at the time. The introduction of greased car- 
tridges was another coinciding element. This has been re- 
garded by some as the actual cause of the mutiny, but it 
was simply a coincidence, and was made use of as an incite- 
ment to revolt. Artfully was it seized upon, and success- 
fully was it employed. To make use of the new cartridges 
according to regulation, the soldiers must bite off the end 
before inserting them in the musket. The report was cir- 
culated through the whole army that they had been greased 
with a composition of tallow and lard — the former an abom- 
ination to the Hindoo, and the latter to the Mohammedan. 
The Hindoo would as soon draw a razor across his throat 
as put a particle of the fat of the cow to his lips, and a Mo- 
hammedan would perish before he would have any thing to 
do with the fat of the swine. The report was circulated 
that by this means the English intended to compel both 
classes to abjure their religion, and it was effectively used 
as one of the instruments by which the troops, Hindoos and 
Mohammedans, were stirred up to revolt. 

It is a very remarkable fact that no satisfactory evidence 



284 AROUND THE WOMLD. 

has ever been found that the rebellion had any real head or 
leader, or that it was designed to re-establish any one of the 
old dynasties, or to fonnd a new one. Conspiracy there 
must have been, but there were no arch-conspirators, and 
there was no well-executed plan of action. Some have im- 
plicated the effete family of the old King of Delhi ; some 
have regarded the ex-King of Oude, a sort of state prisoner 
at Calcutta, as being its moving spirit; some have given 
the same position to the monster Nana Sahib ; but I do not 
think there is any proof that any one of these, or others 
who have been named, played any such ambitious part in 
the terrible drama. The mutiny was more Mohammedan 
than Hindoo in its origin and in progress ; but this, perhaps, 
was owing to the fact that the Mohammedans had been so 
long the ruling race. 

Equally mysterious with its origin were the means used 
in preparing for a concerted movement throughout India. 
At the commencement of the year 1857 it was noticed that 
a peculiar kind of small cakes of unleavened bread, called 
chupatties, were distributed through the whole country. A 
messenger appeared at a village with these cakes, he sought 
out the head man of the place and gave him six, with the 
charge that he was to send six more to the next village, 
and so they passed from one end of the land to the other, 
and exerted a talismanic power which has never been ex- 
plained. Just about the same time lotus flowers were sent 
to the native soldiers at the various cantonments, and they, 
too, passed from hand to hand with the same effect. Strange 
to say, the peculiar significance of these tokens has never 
transpired, so profoundly have the secrets of the mutiny 
been preserved. The history of the world will scarcely 
furnish a parallel to the anomalies and mysteries connected 
with this whole matter. 

The first serious signs of disaffection appeared at Dun- 
dum, near Calcutta, in January, 1857. The Sepoys object- 
ed to the greased cartridges, but they professed to be satis- 
fied when they were excused from using them. The same 



THE MUTINY; CAWNPOBE AND LUCKNOW. £85 

disaffection showed itself, and from the same ostensible 
cause, soon after at Barrackpore, opposite Serampore, on 
the Hoogly, where incendiary fires also occurred. A gen- 
eral order for the whole army was then issued allowing the 
soldiers to tear off the end of the cartridge instead of biting 
it, but it had no good effect. All this time the English au- 
thorities slept, as it were, in profound security, ignorant of 
the storm that was so soon to burst upon them. Other and 
more serious disturbances took place, but without awaken- 
ing apprehension. It was not until April that the country 
was roused. Scenes of insubordination and violence oc- 
curred at Meerut, far to the north, extended to Delhi, and 
spread with fearful rapidity until the whole army was in 
revolt. Forts and towns were seized by the rebels, the En- 
glish officers and residents slaughtered without mercy, or 
subjected to the most horrible outrages that fiends could in- 
flict. The magazine in the great fort at Delhi, which con- 
tained a vast amount of stores of all kinds, guns, and am- 
munition, was defended by a small force of English against 
a horde of rebels until the unequal contest could no longer 
be maintained, when, instead of surrendering to the enemy, 
the feeble garrison applied the torch to the train, and thou- 
sands of the assailants perished with the besieged in the 
explosion. Straggling Europeans escaped destruction at 
Delhi and other places to wander for months in the jungle, 
some to be preserved almost by miracle from all horrible 
forms of death. Incidents of this character occurred which 
are too harrowing to be repeated. 

At Allahabad, a native regiment stationed in the town 
suddenly revolted ; shot down the superior officers and bay- 
oneted the yonnger ; attacked the residents, men, women, 
and children, cutting them in pieces while alive ; children 
were tossed on the bayonets of the native soldiers before 
the eyes of their mothers, and atrocities committed which 
the pen can not record. The remnant of English who es- 
caped took refuge in the fort, which was besieged by the 
Sepoys. A train of powder was laid, and the besieged 



286 " AROUND THE WORLD. 

were prepared to blow themselves up and perish in the ex- 
plosion, as at Delhi, the moment the fort should be taken. 
But English troops arrived f i^om below, and they were pre- 
served. All through the mutiny the fort was a rallying- 
point for the English. 

From Delhi, and from other cities where the English 
families were congregated, women and children made their 
escape from the general massacre — sometimes in small com- 
panies, but generally alone — and wandered for days ex- 
posed to the intense heat of the summer sun, when they 
could scarcely exist in the shade, and at night lay down in 
the jungle without shelter, and at last perished from hun- 
ger, fatigue, terror, the stroke of the sun, or the wild beasts. 
At Agra, the foreign population, with few exceptions, suc- 
ceeded in reaching the fort, where they had time to shut 
themselves in before the bursting of the storm ; and here 
they endured a voluntary but fearful imprisonment more 
than four months, not knowing any thing of the fate of 
their friends or what might be going on in other parts of 
India. I met at Delhi a lady who passed through this long 
siege, enduring the agony of suspense in the fear that all 
the rest of India was in the hands of the Sepoys. 

But the chief horrors of the mutiny centred at Cawn- 
pore, and were perpetrated under the orders of the mon- 
ster Nana Sahib. This station was occupied by Sir Hugh 
Wheeler "with a small body of English troops, who had un- 
der their protection several hundred women and children 
belonging to the families resident in the city and the neigh- 
borhood. Having no fortress, they hastily intrenched them- 
selves by throwing up earth-works on the open plain. The 
space they occupied was about two hundred yards square, 
and included a few small buildings. There were nine 
hundred persons in all Mdthin this narrow space. A mur- 
derous fire was opened upon them by the Sepoys, which, 
with famine, the burning sun of June, the close confine- 
ment, and other causes, told fearf ull}^ upon their numbers 
from day to day. Many died, and some went raving mad. 



THE MUTINY; CAWNPORE AND LUCKNOW. 287 

At length the enemy began to pour upon them red-hot shot, 
which fired the buildings, the sick perishing in the flames. 
The soldiers would have cut their way through the multi- 
tude of Sepoy soldiers, even at the risk of all perishing in 
the attempt, but for the hundreds of women and children 
who were under their protection. 

While in this extremity, they received an offer from the 
rebel leader, Nana Sahib, that if they would abandon the 
intrenchments and the treasure which they had been guard- 
ing, the survivors should be furnished with boats and an 
escort to take them down the Ganges to Allahabad. It 
was not until JSTana Sahib had signed the contract and con- 
firmed his promise with a solemn oath that the offer was 
accepted. Conveyances were provided for taking the wound- 
ed, the sick, and the feeble to the river, about a mile dis- 
tant. They were in the act of embarking, when, by the or- 
der of Kana Sahib, a battery opened upon them and num- 
bers were slain. A few boat-loads hastily rowed across the 
river, but they were seized by the Sepoys, the men all sa- 
bred, and the women and children carried back to the camp 
of the monster who had thus violated his pledge. For 
weeks they were incarcerated in a building at Cawnpore, 
where they were subjected to the brutality of the Sepoy 
troops. A rumor having reached the rebels that a military 
force was on the march from Allahabad to rescue the cap- 
tives, an order was given that they should be slain — not an 
unwelcome order to those who Avere suffering a thousand 
deaths. At sunset on the 15th of July, volleys of musketry 
were fired into the doors and windows of the building, after 
which the bayonet and the sword did their work, until all 
were supposed to be dead, and the building was closed for 
the night. The next morning it was found that a number 
were still alive, who, upon being brought out, either threw 
themselves or were thrown into a large well in the com- 
pound, with the dead of the night before. Thus perished 
all who had survived the slaughter of the ghaut, nearly two 
hundred in all. The whole number of victims at Cawn- 



288 AROUND THE WORLD. 

pore was about one thousand. The army, under Havelock, 
entered Cawnpore the day after the massacre, driving out 
the rebels before them; and-when they reached the build- 
ing which was the scene of the massacre, found it strewed 
with the relics of the departed ones — remnants of clothing, 
ladies' and children's shoes, locks of hair, and other memen- 
toes — and the floor covered deep with their blood. The 
brave soldiers were almost maddened by the sight. 

On the plain at Cawnpore is one of the most beautiful 
parks in the East, laid out in exquisite taste, and planted 
with trees, and shrubbery, and ever-blooming flowers. In 
the midst of this park rise the marble walls of a sacred in- 
closure, in the centre of which, over the fatal well, stands a 
marble statue — an angel having in his arms the palm- 
leaves, emblematical of martyrdom and victory. This park 
was laid out and planted after the mutiny, and called the 
Memorial Garden ; but it seemed designed as much to mit- 
igate with its beauty, as to preserve by its monuments, the 
memories of the spot. The pedestal, on which stands the 
angel, bears the following inscri23tion : 

"sacked to the pekpetual memoky of a geeat com- 
pany OF CHRISTIAN PEOPLE — CHIEFLY WOMEN AND CHILDREN 

WHO, NEAR THIS SPOT, WERE CRUELLY MASSACRED BY THE 

FOLLOWERS OF THE REBEL NANA DHOONDOPUNT OF BITHOOR, 
AND CAST, THE DYING- WITH THE DEAD, INTO THE WELL BE- 
LOW, ON THE 15th DAY OF JULY, 1857." 

While General Wheeler and his command, with his pre- 
cious charge, were still in their frail intrenchment, the mu- 
tiny broke out at Futteghur, higher up the Ganges. This 
has long been one of the chief stations of the American 
Presbyterian missions to India. All the Mission buildings, 
including a valuable printing-ofllce, were destroyed. The 
foreign residents were put to the sword, the English officers 
and civilians being the first to suffer. The survivors, in- 
cluding four American missionary families, attempted to 
escape in boats, hoping to reach Allahabad. The Ameri- 
cans were Rev. Messrs. Freeman, Campbell, Johnson, and 



TEE MUTINY; CAWNPOBE AND LUCKNOW. 289 

McMnlleii, with their wives, and two children of Mr. Camp- 
bell. Mr. Freeman had been my classmate and intimate 
friend at Princeton Seminar}''. 

The large party, one hundred and thirty in all, floated 
down the Ganges, all the while in terror of the natives. 
Twice they were fired on by the Sepoys, and a lady, nurse, 
and child were killed. Once, as they landed at evening to 
cook some food on the shore, they were surprised by a 
zemindar, who made them his prisoners ; but they were re- 
leased on the payment of a large ransom. On the fourth 
day the boats ran aground near an island a few miles above 
Cawnpore. The whole party went ashore and concealed 
themselves in the long grass, where they remained in con- 
stant apprehension of discovery, and with little hope of es- 
cape. In this hiding-place they assembled for prayer and 
preparation for death, the missionaries leading them to the 
throne of God's mercy to seek grace for the hour of greater 
trial that awaited them, and exhorting every one to stead- 
fast trust in Him who would bring salvation even in death. 
The record of those solemn scenes was derived from four 
native Christians, who were the only survivors. Near the 
close of the fourth day they were discovered by a body of 
Sepoys, who came upon the island, made them prisoners, 
and, deaf to all appeals for mercy and offers of ransom, took 
them across the river on the way to Cawnpore. Though 
exliausted with long fasting and anxiety, they were tied to- 
gether with ropes, and men, women, and children compelled 
to take up the line of march on foot. Night overtaking 
them, it was spent on the plain in the open air, the Sepoys 
keepiug guard over them to prevent their escape. Early 
the next morning they were taken into Cawnpore to Nana 
Sahib, who ordered them to be drawn up in line on the 
parade-ground, where they were indiscriminately shot down. 
Those who survived the volley of musketry were dispatched 
with the sabre. "When they were first seized by the Sepoys, 
the missionaries dismissed the four native Christians, ad- 
vising them to seek their own safety, but in no circum- ' 

T 



290 AROUND THE WORLD. 

stances to deny theii' Lord and Master. One of them, a 
man who had been a servant to the Maharajah Dhuleep 
Singh, disguised himself, followed the captive party, and 
was a witness to the last fearful scene in which tlieir lives 
were offei*ed up. From him the knowledge of their fate 
was obtained. 

The remarkable fact tliat from the breaking out of the 
mutiny to its close not a single Christian convert took any 
part in the fearful outbreak, is the most emphatic condem- 
nation of the blind and fatal policy of the East India Com- 
pany in discouraging the propagation of Christianity among 
its dependent population in India, and especially in the 
army. The chaplains of the army, Christian ministers, 
were strictly forbidden to interfere in any manner with the 
religion of the native troops. This tenderness was repaid 
by the revolt of those who had been dealt with in such 
mistaken policy. The whole conduct of the native troops 
during the rebellion was strikingly characteristic of Ori- 
ental and Indian character. The most of them joined in 
the mutiny at the very commencement, many of them ex- 
hibiting the ferocity of wild beasts. Some hesitated for 
months, and at length joined the mutineers. Some regi- 
ments remained loyal to the English during the rebellion, 
resisting all inducements to engage in the revolt, even when 
it promised to be successful, and at the very last mutinied 
when it was evident that it must be suppressed. Some, 
though comparatively few, remained faithful to tlie end. 
So made up of contradictions and mysteries is the native 
character. 

What became of the monster Nana Sahib is one of the 
mysteries, of the rebellion. Whether he perished in the 
suppression of the mutiny, or escaped to die in exile, no 
one knows to this clay. 

It was evening when we reached Cawnpore. By twilight 
we drove across the parade-ground where so many brave 
and tender hearts had ceased to beat. It was late before 
we were all arranged for the night at ISToor Mahomed's 



THE MUTINY; CA WNFOBE AND L TJCKNO W. 291 

iiotel in a distant part of tlip town; but the moon came 
out to look upon the scene once so fearful, now so placid, 
and I could not resist the impulse, even at that weird hour, 
to visit the places so full of interest to all who have read 
the story of the Sepoy rebellion. I wandered down to the 
Ganges, to the Suites Chowra Ghcout, where General 
Wheeler's force was treacherously slain. It was a lonely 
spot, and the stillness of the grave reigned over it, broken 
only by the ripple of the flowing river, the cry of the night- 
birds, and an occasional howl of a jackal. In that quiet 
hour, with the personal and the historic recollections which 
came thronging upon the heart, the interest of all India 
seemed to centre in Cawnpore. 

The next morning, after spending an hour in the Memo- 
rial Garden, w^e took leave of Cawnpore and went on to 
Lucknow, the scene of the memorable siege. 

Lucknow is about forty miles to the northeast of Cawn- 
pore, with which, and with the East Indian Railway, it is 
connected by a branch road. The Cawnpore Station is on 
the opposite side of the Ganges, which we crossed by one 
of the usual bridges of boats, which are much better adapt- 
ed to these swift-flowing and rapidly-rising streams than 
one might suppose. As we crossed the bridge early in the 
morning, I looked up the stream for the island on w^hich 
one of the large companies that had been massacred by the 
orders of Nana Sahib had been seized on their flight down 
the river from Futteghur, after lying concealed for three 
days in the grass. The same river on which they had float- 
ed still flowed on in its course ; the same landmarks were 
scattered along its shores, but the fearful scenes which they 
had witnessed were among the things of the past. 

It was near noon when the domes and minarets of Luck- 
now rose into view, and grand was the sight. Few of the 
cities of India could compare in outward splendor with 
the capital of Oude as it was before the mutiny, or even 
as it now stands. It lays claim to great antiquity, dating 
far back in the shadowy periods of Hindoo history ; but 
the present city has all been built within the last century. 



292 AROUND THE WORLD. 

The King of Oude, whose possessions were the last to he 
seized by the East India Company, reigned here in great 
splendor. He had just completed the Kaiser Bagh — the 
extensive palace which forms the most striking feature in 
the view of the city, having expended in its construction 
and embellishment eighty lacs of rupees (about four mill- 
ions of dollars) — when the British authorities informed 
him that they required his extensive and rich dominions, 
and that he must lay down his sceptre and his crown. 
Lord Dalhousie, who was then governor general, proposed 
to settle on him a large pension ; but the king, very natu- 
rally, was reluctant to resign his authority and his reve- 
nues, and steadfastly refused to put Jiis hand to any deed 
of conveyance. When compelled to retire, he sent his 
queen to England to plead his cause before another queen, 
Victoria ; but before she returned the mutiny of 1857 
iDroke out, and his fate was sealed. He now resides, a sort 
of prisoner, on his own purchased estate, two or three mile.- 
below Calcutta, on the Hoogly. By many this seizure of 
the territory of Oude and the sale of the personal property 
of the king is regarded as the immediate cause of the re- 
bellion. 

There is more of show in the city of Lucknow than of 
solid grandeur, such as we see at Benares, or of the exqui- 
site taste and almost inconceivable costliness that we find 
at Agra and the old Mogul capital at Delhi ; but with its 
domes, and minarets, and imposing structures, it is a real- 
ization of all one's dreams of Eastern magnificence. The 
palace, gorgeous in its style of architecture, and colored to 
resemble a vast structure of gold, with its lofty dome of 
real gold, looms up before the eye ; the Hoseinabad Imaicm- 
hm'a, built by Ali Shah, and elaborately ornamented ; the 
Jwnma Musjid, the Grand Mosque ; the magnificent mar- 
ble tombs of former kings, more beautiful than the pal- 
aces ; the Great Imcmmbara, the architects of which were 
commanded to produce a building which should be unlike 
any others ever built (in which they succeeded), and which 



THE irUTINY; CA WMPOBE AND L UCKNO W. 293 

should sur23ass them all in beauty and magnificence (in 
which they failed) ; the DilJchoosha palace, where the he- 
roic soldier, Sir Henry Havelock, breathed his last; the 
Martiniere, from the dome of which the mountains of Ca- 
bool are seen, though a hundred miles distant — these, and 
many other striking buildings, set like gems in the midst 
of Oriental foliage, give a grandeur to the views of the 
city which can not be transferred to the written page. A 
drive through Lucknow and its suburbs is one of rare beau- 
ty and of indescribable interest. 

Notwithstanding all this Eastern splendor, I felt won- 
derfully like entering a familiar city when entering Luck- 
now. Years before I had become familiar with its appear- 
ance and -localities in reading the history of the memora- 
ble siege, in which the garrison of British soldiers, protect- 
ing hundreds of women and children, were surrounded by 
50,000 Sepoys, and subjected to a murderous fire day and 
night, without any communication with the outer world 
for 113 days. I had followed the noble Havelock and his 
brave troops in their long march under the burning sun of 
India, and as they cut their way through the multitudi- 
nous Sepoys into the Residency, only to find that their force 
was still too feeble to compel the enemy to raise the siege. 
I had read with the same intense interest the story of the 
final relief of the besieged, by Sir Colin Campbell, with his 
Highland brigade ; of their going forth by night, leaving 
the city in the hands of the rebels ; and of its final capture 
the following year by the most heroic fighting recorded in 
the annals of war. All these scenes were so familiar that 
I did not feel like being in a strange city. 

After finding quarters at the Imperial Hotel (it bore 
about the same relation to a genuine republican hotel that 
a marble tomb, with its one lonely couch, does to a cheer- 
ful home), our first visit was to the Residency, the scene of 
the siege. It was the former residence or palace of the 
British commissioner, and occupied a slight elevation, an 
area of a few acres, within the city. At the breaking out 



294 ABOUND THE WORLD. 

of the mutiny, tlie Mucliee BTiowan fort, being found un- 
tenable, was blown up, and the garrison retired to the Res- 
idency, where they threw up earth- works, and endured the 
long siege. 

By the kindness of Dr. Fayrer, of Calcutta, former sur- 
geon at the Residency, I had been furnished with diagrams 
and notes made during the siege, which greatly aided me 
in reviewing its memorable history. The original garri- 
son, as it left the fort, numbered about 1700 men, of whom 
nearly half were native troops. At the relief there were 
left, including sick and wounded, only 350 Europeans and 
133 natives. Several hundred women and children spent 
the five months of the siege chiefly in the cellars of the 
buildings, where they awaited their rescue in anxious and 
protracted suspense. 

It was a mystery I could not solve, excepting in the re- 
flection that the Almighty had thrown a shield over this 
company of imperiled souls, that for so many months they 
not only could endure the privations, and suspense, and 
anxiety, and heat, in such quarters, but still more that they 
could survive the storm of iron hail which day and night 
was poured upon them by tens of thousands of infuriated 
native troops. Their numbers were greatly reduced by 
death, but the preservation and final escape of any seemed 
the next thing to a miracle. At any hour within the many 
months of the siege, the enemy, by mere force of numbers, 
might have carried the whole place by storm, and put the 
entire garrison, with the women and children, to the sword. 
But they had no leader of sufiicient courage, and the hand 
of God held back the mutineers. 

With melancholy interest I went into the Dilkhoosha 
Palace, where General Havelock, after escaping uninjured 
the perils of war, sank under an attack of dysentery, and 
died while the British forces were making their success- 
ful escape from the city. I visited also the summer pal- 
ace of the king, Alum BagJi., two or three miles out of 
town, to which the body of Havelock was carried, and 



TRE MUTINY; CA WJSfPOBE AND L UCKNO W. 295 

where a force was left to hold the place until the recap- 
ture of the city the following year. The tomb of the hero 
stands in the centre of the garden, and bears a long and 
very ina23propriate inscription. 

The inscription on the stone that marks the grave of Sir 
Henry Lawrence, in the cemetery of the Residency, seem- 
ed equally infelicitous : " Here lies Henry Lawrence, who 
ti'ied to do his duty. May God have mercy on his soul." 
The explanation should be made thait these were words 
which this excellent man uttered as he was sinking into 
the arms of death. Like Havelock, he was a man of de- 
cided Christian character. After being struck by the fa- 
tal shell, as he was lying in the open veranda of Dr. Fay- 
rer's house, to which he was carried, and while exposed to 
the constant fire of the enemy, he asked to have the holy 
communion administered to him, many of the officers join- 
ing in the service. He expressed his firm trust in the 
atonement of Christ for the pardon of his sins, and his 
hope of heaven through the merits of the Savior. He 
spoke in words of deepest tenderness, and with bitter tears, 
of his absent wife and daughter, whom he should not see 
again on earth. He then earnestly entreated all around 
him to prepare for the realities of another world, remind- 
ing them of the vanity of all earthly distinctions, and, re- 
ferring to his own honors, asked, " What is it all worth 
now V and died. 

It is an ungracious task to spoil a romantic story, but 
the thrilling incident connected with the siege of Luck- 
now, read the world over with such intense interest — the 
hearing of the pibroch of the Highlanders under Sir Colin 
Campbell by a Highland girl long before any sound or 
tidings of the approaching army reached any other ear, re- 
lated as an instance of the Highland second-sight or hear- 
ing — was a pure fiction. 

Two or three weeks after I was at Lucknow, and while 
I was still in the country, I received by post a copy of a 
newspaper in Persian, printed at Lucknow, which contain- 



296 AROUND THE WORLD. 

ed the following notice of our visit at that place. I have 
the original now before me, but I give a translation made 
by a Hindoo friend who had not yet attained to a very ac- 
curate use of the English language : 

" VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD. 

" Dr. Prime, with few of his friends, left New York in August, 1 869, and. 
after visiting few places in America, came to Pacific ; from thence on a 
steamer to Japan and China, and, after seeing some famous cities, he left for 
Calcutta, and reached in December. From there he came up country ti) 
Lucknow via Allahabad. He has now left for Agra and Delhi, and after- 
wards he intends to visit Egypt, Constantinople, and Turkey, and then direct 
to his native land. We think that this will take about fourteen months. 

"What a nice thing is this, that people can journey throughout the world 
with great ease and comfort. And from this we find a strong proof that the 
earth is round. " 



XXI. 

AGRA AND THE TAJ. 



' From Lucknow we returned to Cawnpore, and took the 
cars of the East India Railway for Agra. At Toondla 
Junction, where we were to make a change, we had the 
only rain that fell w^hile Ave were in India, and this was out 
of season. We reached Toondla after midnight, and, while 
waiting for the train, the heavens grew black, and shot forth 
shafts and sheets of lightning, accompanied with heavy 
thunder. It rained heavily until morning. 

On reaching Agra we made our way to Beaumont's 
East Indian Hotel, pleasantly located in the midst of a 
charming compound outside of the native town, and we 
flattered ourselves that we had reached a delightful reti-eat, 
in which we could spend a few days luxuriously in this old 
capital of the Timours. But, alas ! — We had a bungalow 
all to oiu'selves, but the bungalow was nearly all that we 
had. Our sleeping-rooms were without furniture except- 
ing a bedstead and mattress. We found that we were ex- 



AOSA AND THE TAJ. 297 

pected to furnish the bedding ourselves. In India Euro- 
peans have been in the habit of traveling with tents, taking 
with them all the comforts and necessaries of life. 

When I first reached Calcutta I wrote to an old friend in 
the extreme north, informing him of my arrival, and asking 
him to secure accommodations for our party at a hotel or 
government bungalow in the city in which he was residing. 
I received in reply a hearty welcome to the country, with 
the assurance that, as there was no hotel in the place, he 
would arrauge for the accommodation of the entire party 
at private houses jprovided we brought our own beds and 
bedding with ns. When we reached Agra we had not laid 
in a supply of linen, and inquisition was at once made at 
the principal hotel in the city, but, after the most diligent 
search, only four sheets could be mustered for seven persons, 
not all mated. Of course, no one could have more than a 
single sheet, and not every one could have even that. 

We found it almost as difiicult to make a living at the 
table, the commissariat being as poorly supplied as the 
wardrobe. The servants were all natives who had nevei* 
found it convenient to cultivate the English language, and 
we had no time to cultivate the Hindustani, Persian, Mah- 
ratta, or any of the numerous dialects of the region, so that 
we fared ill while we were guests at the East Indian hotel. 

After a vain attempt to gather up the fragments of the 
sleep which we had lost on the rail and at the stations dur- 
ing the night, we sallied forth to visit the, renowned fort 
and palace of the emperors, Agra, or, as it was once called, 
Akbarabad, first rose to importance in the beginning of the 
sixteenth century, and from 1526 to 1658 it was the capital 
of the house of Timour. Here, for more than a century, 
the Moguls lavished their wealth on costly buildings to be 
occupied while they lived, and erected still more costly 
structures in which to repose after they were dead. 

The fortress, which is a mile and a half in circumference, 
and which contains the palace, was built by the Emperor 
Akbar. It stands upon the banks of the Jumna, the mass- 



298 ABOUND THE WOBLD. 

ive walls ou the river side being sixty feet in height, and 
commanding a magnificent view of the river and country. 
When it was built it was a fortress of immense strength, 
but the mode of warfare has changed in modern times ; it 
would not now be regarded as impregnable. It served, 
however, as a shelter to the European families during the 
four or five months of the mutiny in which they were shut 
up and shut out from all communication with the rest of 
the world, but kept secure from the hordes of mutineers 
that swarmed around them. jSTearly six thousand refugees 
from the city and the neighboring country were thus pro- 
tected. 

As a specimen of the manner in which the old emperors" 
were accustomed to fortify their palaces, it may be mention- 
ed that when Agra was taken by the British in 1803, among 
the spoils found within the fort was a cannon of twenty- 
three inches bore, the metal eleven and a half inches thick 
at the muzzle, fourteen feet and two inches in length, and 
weighing ninety-six thousand j)ounds. It carried a ball of 
cast-iron weighing fifteen hundred pounds. This stupen- 
dous piece of ordnance was blown into fragments by the 
orders of a British ofiicer, who perhaps had some fear that 
he might live long enough to feel the weight of one of its 
balls. 

The entrance to the fortress is strongly protected by tow- 
ers and passages elaborately constructed, such a gateway 
as none but a powerful assault could force. We drove 
through it into the grand court, and alighting, entered the 
Diwan-i-maum, the ancient judgment-hall in which the Mo- 
gul emperors dispensed justice after the manner of the 
times. Strange as well as splendid scenes had passed with- 
in those walls, when an empire rich beyond all precedent 
yielded its immense revenues to fill the coffei'S and swell 
the state of those despotic monarchs. 

The palace stands in the same inclosure, one portion of 
its walls, with its stone balconies, overhanging, at a dizzy 
height, the walls of the fort itself. It was built by Shah 



AGUA AND TEE TAJ. 299 

Jehan, grandson of Akbar, and, like every thing in archi- 
tecture "that he midertook, was executed at immense ex- 
pense and in exquisite taste. This emperor celebrated his 
accession to the throne by a festival which, according to 
Khafi Khan, cost more than fifteen millions of rupees (a 
sum equal to $7,500,000) ; and although he expended hun- 
dreds of millions on costly structures and their adornment, 
and hundreds of millions more upon his army, he had in 
his treasury, when he died, more than $100,000,000 of 
coined money, besides a vast accumulation of the precious 
metals in bullion, jewels, and precious stones. 

The palace was laid out upon a scale of great magnifi- 
cence, designed alike for the entertainment as well as the 
luxurious living of its inmates. One of the court-yards 
was arranged in mosaic for a game resembhng chess, in 
which thfe men, living persons, made the moves according 
to the order of the emperor and his guests, who were seat- 
ed in the fretted marble balconies above. The bath, a suite 
of marble rooms, was set with thousands of convex mirrors, 
which multiplied the artificial hghts by myriads, making it 
a scene of splendor indescribable. 

The Motee Mtisjid, or Pearl Mosque, standing near the 
Judgment Hall, is an exquisite specimen of architecture 
and of the sculptor's art, of the finest marble, the interior 
carved in flowers and vines, chaste and simple, but sur- 
passingly beautiful. It is not alone the Pearl Mosque ; it is 
the pearl of mosques, unequaled in purity and beauty by 
any similar structure. 

But all that we had seen in the forts of Akbar and the 
palace of Shah Jehan was eclipsed by another structure, 
the most sublime and beautiful that now stands npon the 
face of the earth. This, I believe, is the unqualified testi- 
mony of every one who has seen the Taj. 

About a mile to the south of the fort at Agra, upon the 
right bank of the Eiver Jumna, lies a beautiful park, about 
a quarter of a mile square, planted with the choicest trees, 
and shrubs, and fiowers of the East. More than eighty 



300 AROUND THE WORLD. 

fountains, scattered along the avenues of this park, tliroM- 
their jets into the air, which sparkles with the falling drops 
as with a shower of diamonds. It is surrounded by a high 
wall, and guarded by a magnificent gateway, a building 
fifty or sixty feet in height, which, with any other surround- 
ings, would be studied and admired for its architectural 
grandeur, and the beauty of its carving and mosaic orna- 
mentation. No one would imagine it to be simply the 
portal to greater beauty and grandeur, but such it is. 

We enter beneath this majestic arch, and find ourselves 
within the park. A broad avenue, skirted with lofty cy- 
presses, acacias, and other Oriental trees, and tanks of 
aquatic plants and jets cVeau, reveals, at its extremity, an 
object which at once rivets the eye, and steals over the 
heart like a strain of delicious music, or like the melody of 
sublime poetry. It is the Taj, the peerless Taj, the mauso- 
leum erected by the Emperor Shah Jehan as the tomb of 
his favorite begum, Noor Mahal, in which they now sleep 
side by side. She died before him in giving birth to a 
child, and it is stated that, as she felt her life ebbing away, 
she sent for the emperor, and told him she had only two 
requests to make : first, that he would not take another 
wife and have children to contend with hers for his favor 
and dominions ; and, second, that he would build for her 
the tomb he had promised, to perpetuate her memory. 
The emperor summoned the medical counselors of the city 
to do every thing that was in their power to save her life, 
but all in vain. 

Shah Jehan, who was devotedly attached to her, at once 
set about complying with her last request. The tomb was 
commenced immediately, and, according to Tavernier, who 
saw its first and last stones laid, it was twenty-two years in 
building, with twenty thousand men constantly occupied 
upon it. It cost, in actual expense, in addition to the 
forced labor of the men, more than three hundred lacs of 
rupees, or about fifteen millions of dollars. Such a build- 
ing, including the cost of materials, could scarcely be erect- 



A6BA AND THE TAJ. 301 

ed by paid labor at the present time, even in India, for 
$50,000,000. 

As this building is acknowledged by every traveler to be 
unrivaled, and the sight of it declared by many to be worth 
a journey round the world, I will give a more minute de- 
scription of its situation and its prominent features. 

At the extremity of the beautiful park or Oriental garden 
of which I have spoken, on the river side rises a terrace of 
red sandstone twenty feet in height, and a thousand feet 
broad. The walls of the terrace on all sides are of hewn 
stone, and its surface is paved with the same material. At 
the extreme left of this terrace stands a magnificent mosque, 
an appendage to the main structure, the Taj. It is the 
place of prayer for the faithful, who come to visit the tomb 
of the favorite of the Mogul emperor. This building alone 
must have been very costly, but as it w^ould destroy the 
symmetry of the grand mausoleum by occupying one side 
of the central building, the emperor had another mosque, a 
perfect counterpart, erected on the opposite extremity of 
the terrace, a thousand feet distant, of no use excepting as 
^joivah, or answer to the first. The one is held as a sacred 
place ; the other, in the eyes of a Mohammedan, has noth- 
ing sacred about it; it is simply the complement of the 
first. 

On the lofty terrace of sandstone rises another terrace 
of pure white marble, its walls of cut stone laid as regular- 
ly as the courses of a marble building. This terrace is 
three hundred feet square. At each of its four corners 
there stands a circular marble minaret, about twenty-five 
feet in diameter, diminishing in size until at the height of 
a hundred and fifty feet it is crowned with an open cupo- 
la, commanding a magnificent view of the Taj with its sur- 
roundings, of the River Jumna, the city and fort of Agra, 
and of the adjacent country. I ascended to the top of one 
of these minarets, and had photographed upon my memory 
a view which I am sure no time can dim. 

In the centre of this marble terrace, equidistant from 



302 AROUND THE WORLD. 

the four lofty and graceful minarets, stands the bnildmg 
which for more than two centuries has been the admira- 
tion of every eye that in all that period of time has rested 
on it. It is an octagon, or it might perhaps be more cor- 
rectly described as a square with each of the four corners 
slightly cut off, and is crowned with a high swelling dome, 
having the gracefulness of outline which seems to have 
been an inspiration in the Mohammedan and Oriental styles 
of architecture. The building is one hundred and fifty 
feet in diameter ; the crescent upon the summit of the 
dome nearly two hundred feet above the pavement. The 
structure is built from foundation to topstone of the purest 
marble, so perfect in its preservation and so unspotted in 
its whiteness that it looks as if it might have been erected 
only yesterday. Standing upon its marble pedestal, it vies 
in purity with the clouds that are floating by. A cupola 
of the same material rests upon the roof on each side of 
the dome. The exterior of the building is carved in grace- 
ful designs, the front elaborately wrought, bat in such per- 
fect taste as to fill the eye like a picture in colors. Ko de- 
scription will convey to the mind any idea of the effect of 
the engraving on the arched doorway. It is elaborate, but 
not florid, giving to the solid marble almost the lightness 
of a cloud. Indeed, the whole building, as you look upon 
it, seems to float in the air like an autumn cloud. 

Let us enter — but breathe softly and tread gently as you 
step within. It is the sleeping chamber of Noor Mahal, 
the cherished wife of the Mogul emperor. Shah Jehan, and 
here, beneath this magnificent dome, they lie side by side, 
each in a couch of almost transparent marble, set witli pre- 
cious stones, and wrought exquisitely in tracery of vine 
and flowers. Nowhere else has human dust been laid away 
to slumber in such superb repose — so beautiful, so silent, 
so sacred, so sublime. In such perfect, exquisite taste is 
every thing within as well as without, that it is more like 
a creation than the work of man. The whole interior, 
which is lighted only from the lofty doorway, is open from 



AGUA AND THE TAJ. 303 

wall to wall, and from the pavement to the summit of the 
dome, with the exception of a high marble screen standing 
abont twenty or thirty feet from the outer wall, and ex- 
tending entirely around the building. This is cut in open 
tracery, so as to resemble a curtain of lace rather than a 
screen of solid marble. One who has seen the veiled statue 
of a master artist can appreciate the deception, if decep- 
tion it can be called where none was intended. 

The sarcophagi containing the remains of the empress 
and of her faithful lover, the Mogul emperor, lie in the 
crypt below, which is reached by a marble stairway. That 
of the former has inscribed upon it, in the graceful Arabic 
characters, " Moontaj-i-Mahal, Ranoo Begum" (Eanoo Be- 
gum, the Ornament of the Palace), with the date of her 
death, 1631. The other has inwrought the name of the 
emperor, with the date of his death, 1666. To this day 
they are covered with fresh flowers, strewed by faithful 
hands, in recognition of the fidelity which reared the struc- 
ture. 

Upon the main floor, directly over these marble slabs, 
and under the canopy of the open dome, stand the ceno- 
taphs, designed simply as the representatives of those be- 
low, but carved in tracery and set with gems in no osten- 
tatious or gaudy style, but so beautifully and tastefully 
that one lingers around them as he stands before some 
masterpiece of art, never satisfied with looking. Upon the 
cenotaph of the queen, amid wreaths of fiowers, worked in 
gemmed mosaic, are passages from the Koran, in Arabic, 
one of which reads, " Defend us from the tribe of unbe- 
lievers." This inscription was made by the Emperor Shah 
Jehan, who seemed to think no words too sacred to be re- 
corded upon the tomb of one wdiom he loved so devotedly ; 
but his own son, Aurungzebe, who placed the marble in 
memory of his father, in accordance with Mohammedan 
custom regarded the words of the Koran as too holy to be 
engraved — the difference between conjugal and filial love. 
In the same devotion to his wife. Shah Jehan caused the 



304 ABOUND THE WORLD. 

Koran to be inscribed npon the interior of the Taj, in mo- 
saic of precious stones, jasper, lapis lazuli, heliotrope, chal- 
cedony, carnelian, etc. The whole of the Koran is said to 
be thus inwrought, and yet it has the appearance of a light 
and graceful vine running over the walls. With the sen- 
tences of the Koran, thus traced upon the marble in such 
costly material, are interspersed fruits, and flowers, and 
running vines, all of precious stones inlaid, designed to 
represent one of the bowers of Paradise in which the em- 
peror had laid the light of his life to sleep her last sleep. 

While we were standing beneath that lofty dome, the 
silence of the tomb reigning even over its exquisite beauty 
and grandeur, voices at my side commenced singing : 

" In the hour of pain and anguish, 
In the hour when death draws near, 
Suffer not our hearts to languish, 
Suffer not our souls to fear. 
And when mortal life is ended, 
Bid us in thine arms to rest, 
'Till, by angel bands attended, 
We awake among the blest." 

The singing ceased, but far up in that snow-white vault, as 
if among the fleecy clouds of heaven, an angel band caught 
up the strain, not as an ordinary echo of reflected sound, 
but as if prolonging the notes. It continued as long as the 
original song, and at length gradually died away, only as 
the song of angels would cease to be heard when they en- 
ter the portals of heaven. This echo is as marvelous and 
as celebrated as the Taj itself, and I know not in what 
building or in what part of the world another like it can 
be heard. 

All this description may seem to the reader simply ex- 
travagant, but not if the reader has ever looked upon the 
building described. Every one who has seen it will simply 
say that words are powerless to express the ideas which 
its sublimity and beauty inspire. I could only compare 
the emotions which it excited to those awakened by list- 
ening to exquisite music, and the building to some sub- 



AGBA AND THE TAJ. 3O5 

lime poem, whose words transport the soul out of itself. 
The very first glimpse of the structure, as I entered the 
gateway a quarter of a mile distant, and looked down the 
long avenue of acacias and cypress, was overpowering, and 
I felt at every step as I drew nearer that I must withdra-w 
my gaze or be overcome. Often, as I stood within the Taj , 
its silent grandeur was equally overpowering. Moonlight 
is said to add greatly to the effect of the whole scene, giv- 
ing to the building the appearance of a cloud-castle built 
in air. 

According to the records, Shah Jehan had planned an- 
other structure precisely similar to this for his own tomb, 
on the opposite side of the Jumna, to be connected with it 
by a bridge, but he wisely concluded to sleep by the side 
of his beloved begum. 

As we left the Taj and lingered in the park, we found it 
vocal with the song of birds. Richly-colored paroquets 
made their homes along the cornices of the surrounding 
buildings and upon the gateway, and, by a singular though 
somewhat sentimental coincidence, the only turtle-doves 
that I saw or heard in India were two mates that sighed 
their melancholy notes upon the evening air as a requiem 
over Shah Jehan and his beloved I*»[oor Mahal. 

On Christmas morning we rode out several miles from 
Agra to Secundra, a station of the English Church Mission- 
ary Society known as " the Christian Yillage." We heard, 
long before reaching it, the sound of the church-going bell, 
a strange sound in a heathen land. This missionary sta- 
tion, which comprises a considerable community, has been 
organized on the principle of separating the native Chris- 
tians from their ordinary associates in order to protect 
them from the evil influences by which they are surround- 
ed among their own people, and also to give to the natives 
at large an illustration of the influence of the Gospel of 
Christ upon a community, important ends to be accom- 
plished, but only at the expense of losing the leavening and 
aggressive power of religion working through the relations 

U 



306 AROUND THE WORLD. 

of society. It has too much of the community principle 
about it to commend it to general adoption. But in this 
case a great and beneficent work has been done, and this 
Christian community has become a light in the land. Be- 
fore we reached the place the congregation had assembled 
at the neat English church, whither we at once directed 
our steps, and where an interesting and impressive sight 
greeted our eyes and moved our hearts. The building, 
which was well filled, had no benches, the whole congrega- 
tion, according to Oriental custom, being seated upon the 
floor, each one clothed in pure white, the women and girls 
with their long muslin garments drawn over their heads as 
veils. All devoutly engaged in the service, joining in the 
responses, and in prayer bowing their foreheads to the pave- 
ment. The services were conducted in the Hindustani 
tongue, and were unintelligible to us, but before us was a 
congregation of people who had been called out of the 
grossest idolatry, now devoutly engaged in celebrating the 
birth of the Saviour of the world, joining with Christians 
of all lands in the song of the heavenly host, " Glory to God 
in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." 
As I looked upon them in their devotions, the vision of the 
Apostle John in the Isle of Patmos came up before me, and 
I seemed to hear the inquiry, " What are these which are ^ 
arrayed in white robes, and whence came they ?" and then 
the response, " These are they which came out of great 
tribulation, and have washed their robes and made them 
white in the blood of the Lamb." This was one of nu- 
merous scenes witnessed in India, which show that the Gos- 
pel of Christ, through the power of the divine Spirit, is 
making its conquests and giving promise of a day when it 
shall completely triumph over idolati-y and superstition. 

The tomb of Akbar, one of the Mogul emperors, stands 
near Secundra, in the midst of a quadrangular court a quar- 
ter of a mile square. A heavy wall surrounds the square, 
making the inclosure a fortress. The mausoleum in wliich 
lie the remains of the great emperor is three hundred feet 



AQBA AND THE TAJ. 3O7 

square, and vies in magnilicence, though not in beauty, with 
the Taj, rising to the height of a hundred feet in five ter- 
races, with cloisters, galleries, domes, and cupolas elaborate- 
ly wrought. The roof of the highest elevation is flat, one 
hundred feet square. In the centre stands a cenotaph of 
pure marble, elaborately carved with the N'ow Nuhhey 
If am, the ninety -nine names of God, from the Koran. It is 
covered with a cupola, not for the protection of the ceno- 
taph, but to guard the names of God from the storm. The 
roof is surrounded by a lattice of carved marble, and at 
each corner is a beautiful marble cupola, light and grace- 
ful. The sarcophagus which contains the dust of the em- 
peror, on the ground floor, is reached by a descending pas- 
sage similar to that of the great pyramid of Egypt. The 
whole structure is almost as massive as the pyramids. 

Akbar was the most powerful sovereign of his day, and 
a man of independent if not enlightened views. He open- 
ed the places of honor and responsibility to all races and all 
religions, and by his liberal and tolerant policy secured to a 
greater extent than most Oriental monarchs the affections 
of his people. His sons having all died in infancy, he made 
a pilgrimage to the shrine of a celebrated saint at A j mere 
to sue for an heir. He went with his whole familj^ on foot 
a distance of three hundred and fifty miles, at the rate of 
four miles a day. Walls of cloth were put up on each side 
of the road, and carpets spread for the royal pilgrims the 
entire distance. On reaching the shrine, he was referred 
to another saint still living at Secree, where he was prom- 
ised an heir that should live to a good old age. The em- 
press afterward gave birth to a son, who became the re- 
nowned Jehangeer. Akbar then took up his residence at 
Futtehpore Secree, about twenty miles from Agra, where 
he founded a summer capital, covering the hills with mag- 
nificent buildings, the very ruins of which are among the 
most impressive testimonies to the grandeur of the Mogul 
court. When he died, the treasures that he had heaped to- 
gether — coin, jewels, plate, brocades, etc. — were estimated 



308 AROUND THE WORLD. 

at seven hundred millions of rupees (about $350,000,000). 
His crown, studded with jewels, was valued at twenty mill- 
ions of rupees. One of the historians of India thus de- 
scribes the splendor of his reign : 

"The greatest displays of Akbar's grandeur were at the 
vernal equinox and on his birthday. They lasted for several 
days, during which there was a general fair, and many pro- 
cessions and other pompous shows. The emperor's usual 
place was in a rich tent, in the midst of awnings to keep oiF 
the sun. At least two acres wei'e thus spread with silk and 
gold, carpets and hangings, as rich as velvet embroidered 
with gold, pearls, and precious stones could make them. The 
nobility had similar pavilions, where they received visits from 
each other, and sometimes from the emperor. Dresses, jewels, 
horses, and elephants were bestowed upon the nobles. The 
emperor was weighed in golden scales against gold, silver, 
perfumes, and other substances in succession, which were dis- 
tributed among the spectators. Almonds and other fruits of 
gold and silver were scattered by the emperor's own hand, 
and eagerly caught by the coui'tiers. On the great day of 
each festival the emperor was seated on his throne in a noble 
palace, surrounded by his nobles, wearing high heron-plumes, 
and sparkling with diamonds like the firmament. Many hun- 
dred elephants passed before him in companies, all most rich- 
ly adorned, and the leading elephant of each company with 
gold plates on his head and breast set with rubies and eme- 
ralds. Trains of caparisoned horses followed, and after them 
rhinoceroses, lions, tigers, panthei's, hunting leopards, hounds, 
and hawks, the whole concluding with an innumerable host 
of cavalry glittering with cloth of gold." 

Intending to leave for Delhi in the afternoon, we short- 
ened our stay at the tomb of Akbar, and hastened back to- 
ward Agra. But, alas for human calculations in Oriental 
lands ! our horses were factors or tractors in the calcula- 
tion which we had not taken fully into the account. One 
of the miserable beasts gave out, and, after walking about 
two miles, we impressed an ekha, one of the rough carts of 
the country, and so reached our hotel. Here a new mis- 
fortune awaited us, revealing visions of the Black Hole of 
Calcutta, or some vile prison, not at all agreeable to our 
fancy in that land of the Moguls and the Hindoos. 



AGBA AND THE TAJ. 399 

~ Having hastily arranged our baggage, our bills duly 
paid (with the usual necessary abatements), our luggage 
all upon the gharries, we stepped in and gave the order to 
start, on which I settled back into my seat in the vain ex- 
pectation that it would be obeyed. Again I looked out 
and repeated the order, using the strongest Hindustani 
words that I could command, but it was of no avail. Step- 
ping out to see what was the matter, I was confronted by a 
native policeman, whose orders had been more forcible 
than my own, and I at length learned that the whole party 
were under arrest for stealing one of the four sheets that 
we had been able to muster on the day of our arrival. Of 
course we were very indignant, but police officers the world 
over seem to have a common understanding not to regard 
indignant looks and high words as conclusive proof of in- 
nocence, and our warm expressions were received with 
great coldness. I had once, in a strange city in my own 
country, been arrested for passing counterfeit money, but 
then I was near enough to my own friends to communi- 
cate with them, and establish my innocence. Now we 
were ten thousand miles away from those who would cer- 
tify to our previous good character in regard to thieving, 
and the circumstantial evidence was decidedly against us. 
When our party of seven arrived at the hotel, there were 
four sheets distributed among us as the extent of the ac- 
commodations of the first hotel in Agra. As we were about 
to depart, only three sheets could be found, and what sup- 
position was more reasonable, what proof could be more 
positive than this, that we had stolen the fourth, and that 
it had been secreted somewhere in our baggage. Of course 
it was not to be thought of for a moment that one of the 
dozen Hindoo servants, or one of the traveling merchants 
or mendicants who had been coming and going through 
the bungalow all the day long, had taken it. We were the 
culprits beyond all question, and must submit to an exami- 
nation. Cooling down in a measure, we ordered the trunks 
to be taken from the gharries, and full search to be made ; 



310 ABOUND THE WORLD. 

but, wnen we consented to have it done, tliey did not wish 
to do it, like the Frenchman who, in a financial panic, 
made haste to draw out all his deposits from the bank, but 
when he found the teller ready to hand it over, he declined 
to take the money ; he wanted it only in case the bank was 
not willing to pay. The next order of the police was to 
have the ladies' satchels searched. By this time matters 
grew somewhat serious, and we made inquisition for the 
host, Mr. Beaumont, who had not appeared on the scene, 
whether privy to it or not. To him we could talk in round 
English, and we improved the opportunity. lie became 
our bail, notwithstanding we gave him the assurance that 
after such treatment we certainly should not stop at his ho- 
tel the next time we came to India. The whole affair was 
undoubtedly a ruse on the part of the servants, who had 
secreted the sheet, thinking they could extort money from 
us, in payment for the loss, by calling in the police to ar- 
rest us. After the affair was all over, there came an ap- 
prehension on our part that, as the sheets had been folded 
in the morning in anticipation of our departure, one of 
them might possibly have been packed unnoticed with our 
baggage. We reached the cars in season, and at midnight, 
by moonlight, crossed the lofty iron bridge over the Jumna 
at Delhi, and entered the renowned capital of the Mogul 
emperors, more than a thousand miles from Calcutta. "We 
made deliberate inquisition, but not a trace of the missing 
sheet which had occasioned our arrest at Agra was found, 
and we had the proud satisfaction of feeling that we had 
not only escaped the prisons of Agra, but were guiltless of 
the felony. 



DELHI. 2,W 



XXII. 

DELHI. 

The vicinity of Delhi is a field in which the antiquarian 
may revel in endless delight. Within a circle of less than 
twenty miles, one dynasty after another has established its 
capital and ruled in splendor, and then passed away, leav- 
ing the field to the conqueror, who, instead of occupying 
the same site, has founded a new city, and left the old to 
crumble into ruins. In this way numerous cities have been 
scattered over the plain, the monuments of some remaining 
to this day, while the very history of others has been lost. 
One monument, the loftiest single column in the world, 
stands about ten miles from Delhi, in the midst of magjiifi- 
cent ruins, of which there is no satisfactory account in the 
records of India. Old Delhi, as it is called, the last forsa- 
ken site, is in greater perfection ; the walls remain, and 
much of the city is yet standing, but its halls are deserted : 
vagabonds and beasts of prey share its hospitality alike. 
But if the region is a field for the antiquarian, the present 
city, for a long period the capital of the Mogul empire, is 
the home of fancy and the field for romance. 

Delhi was founded by Shah Jehan about two centuries 
and a half ago. When his golden sun arose he determined 
to mark the day by erecting a monumental city. Leaving 
Agra, which had been built chiefly by his grandfather, the 
renowned Akbar, although greatly beautified by himself, 
he came to Delhi and laid the foundations of the gorgeous 
capital. It is inclosed by a wall of granite five and a half 
miles in circuit, and is entered by twelve strongly fortified 
gates — the Calcutta, the Cashmere, the Lahore, etc. • One 
of these, the scene of an heroic and successful assault by 



312 AROUND THE WOULD. 

the English during the mutiny of 1857, hke the fort and 
the citv itself, has a modern tragic history of the deepest 
interest. One principal street, the Chandnee Chowk, 120 
feet wide, divides the town, and is daily the scene of more 
strictly Asiatic display than any other street in India. It 
is alike the Boulevard and the Broadway of Delhi. On 
either side are shops and warehouses of the wealthy mer- 
chants ; the centre is a broad terrace or promenade, shaded 
with acacias and other ornamental trees. During the day 
the Chandnee Chowk is a busy mart of trade, but toward 
evening the loaded trains of camels and other beasts of bur- 
den disappear, the hum of business dies away, and a scene 
of Oriental leisure and display ensues. The promenade is 
thronged with persons in all the varied costumes of the in- 
terior of Asia, while richly-caparisoned Arabian horses, ele- 
phants with gayly-dressed riders, and not a few English car- 
riages belonging to natives, pass up and down the broad 
street. Other parts of the city are equally curious in their 
way. The grain markets are one of the sights. Camels 
and buffaloes, with their heavy freights, come and go like 
ships entering and leaving port, and a noisy multitude, 
scarcely less bewildering and far more entertaining than 
the crowd of a Western produce exchange, almost fascinate 
a stranger. The people of the city at all hours of the day, 
but still more toward evening, may be seen at home on the 
Hat roofs of their houses, apparently unnoticed by and un- 
noticing their nearest neighbors. One feels, in treading 
the streets of Delhi, that he has reached the heart of Asia, 
and every thing is so intimately associated with the old 
Mogul dynasty that its ancient scenes of barbaric splendor 
are continually rising up before him. 

The fortress, built by Shah Jehan for a palace, extends 
nearly a mile along the river, and is protected on all sides 
by a strong wall forty feet in height, flanked with bastions 
and turrets. The main gateway, the Lahore, is a tower of 
great strength. Entering through the archway, which once 
was richly ornamented with flowers in mosaic and with in- 



DELHI. 313 

scriptions from the Koran, and passing into the grand court, 
we came to the Diwan-a-irrh^ the hall where the emperor 
gave free audience to all who had any petition or cause to 
present. It is an immense canopy, supported by pillars of 
stone, with an elevated throne on one side, the wall inlaid 
with mosaics of precious stones representing flowers and 
fruits, birds and beasts. The Diwan-i-khas, or hall of pri- 
vate audience, is smaller, but it is a gem of beauty. It is 
an open marble pavilion, resting on massive pillars and Mo- 
resque arches, the marble highly polished, and having almost 
the transparency of alabaster. The marble balustrade is 
exquisitely carved in elaborate perforated work. At each 
corner of the roof stands a marble kiosk with a gilded dome ; 
the ceiling was once composed of gold and silver filigree 
work, for which the goldsmiths of Delhi are celebrated to 
the present day. One side of the Diwaii-i-Mias opens on 
/ the court by which we entered, and commands a view of 
the whole interior of the fortress ; another looks out upon 
the palace gardens, which are still kept in great beauty ; a 
third affords a charming view of the River Jumna, while 
the fourth, which is closed, rests upon the walls of the royal 
zenana. On the side that is closed once stood the famous 
" Peacock Throne," the admiration, if not the envy, of the 
world in the days when the Mogul dynasty was at the ze- 
nith of its splendor. It is thus described : 

" The throne was six feet long and four feet broad, com- 
posed of solid gold inlaid with precious gems. It was sur- 
mounted by a gold canopy, supported on twelve pillars of the 
same material. Around the canopy hung a fringe of pearls; 
on each side of the throne stood two chattahs., or umbrellas, 
symbols of royalty, formed of crimson velvet richly embroid- 
ered with gold thread and pearls, and with handles of solid 
gold, eight feet long, studded with diamonds. The back of 
the throne was a representation of the expanded tail of a pea- 
cock, the natural colors of which were imitated by sapphires, 
rubies, emeralds, and other brilliant gems. Its value was es- 
timated by Tavernier, a French jeweler, who saw it in its per- 
fection, at six millions of pounds sterling, or thirty millions of 
dollars." 



314 AROUND TEE WORLD. 

This famous Peacock Throne was taken away by the Per- 
sian conqueror, Nadir Shah, who not only stripped the pal- 
ace, but signalized his conquest and the subjugation of the 
Mogul capital by ordering the slaughter of a hundred thou- 
sand of its helpless inhabitants, men, women, and children. 
He sat with the conquered emperor in the Diwan-i-khas, 
sipping his coffee, while the dead were piled in the streets. 
As we trod this marble hall, once the scene of imperial 
splendor, memory and fancy bringing up the contrasts of 
grandeur and cruelty, glory and humiliation which had here 
been witnessed, and as we thought of the many changes 
which had come over the face of things since Shah Jehan 
sat upon his throne of brilliants, we could only look in sad- 
ness nj)on the delusive inscription which the emperor had 
engraved in the beautiful Arabic characters upon the mar- 
ble walls : " If there be a paradise on the face of the earth, 
it is this — it is this — it is this." 

Only a portion of the adjoining seraglio remains, but the 
Hummaums, or royal baths, rooms of the purest white 
marble, with inlaid borders, marble floors and tanks, and a 
fountain in the centre of each room, have a richness and 
exquisite beauty that is almost inconceivable in connection 
with such simplicity of material. The Motee Musjid, or 
Pearl Mosque, a miniature of the Pearl Mosque at Agra, is 
a pearl itself, built exclusively of white marble, and giving 
one an idea of purity such as no other material suggests. 

The Jumma Musjid^ accounted the grandest mosque in 
the East, stands upon an eminence in another part of the 
city. Its paved court, 450 feet square, having in the cen- 
tre a large marble reservoir of water, is skirted on three 
sides by a colonnade of red sandstone, with a marble pa- 
vilion at each corner. The building is very imposing, and, 
with the lofty minarets, forms one of the most striking ob- 
jects in the city, whether seen from a distance or near at 
hand. The view from its summit, taking in the city and 
fort, the river and a vast extent of the surrounding coun- 
try, is sublime. Long did I linger upon it to study the 



DELHI. 315 

strange map which lay before me, and to ponder over the 
history of strange events which had been written on it by 
the hand of time through more than a score of centuries. 

We devoted one day to the Kootuh-Minar, eleven miles 
from Delhi, and to the intervening monuments and ruins 
which are thickly scattered over the plain in all directions. 
The Kootub-Minar is a fluted column 240 feet in height, 
more than 100 feet in circumference at the base, and grad- 
ually diminishing to forty feet at the summit. It is di- 
vided into five stories by projecting balconies, which sur- 
round the tower and add greatly to its beauty. There are 
many curious but evidently designed coincidences in its 
construction. The lowest and upper stories make precise- 
ly half the height ; the lower story is just twice the diame- 
ter, and the whole column is five diameters in height. For 
what purpose the column was erected is a problem which 
the antiquarians of India have not solved, but their solu- 
tion is not at all essential to the admiration of a structure 
which is pronounced the finest of its kind. There it stands, 
in the midst of the ruins of an almost forgotten city, tow- 
ering up toward the heavens in solitary grandeur. One is 
fascinated as he follows up its beautifully fiuted sides un- 
til the lines mingle at the summit, and as he gazes its pro- 
portions swell and rise, and his thoughts become lost in the 
clouds. I have a sort of passion for climbing heights, and 
could not resist the impulse to travel up the spiral stair- 
case to the top (there were only three hundred and seventy- 
five steps), to look out from this elevation upon the ruined 
cities and magnificent mausoleums, and upon the city of 
Delhi in the distance. The view was many times worth 
the climb. 

At the foot of the Minar are the carved fragments of 
the Musjid-i-Kootuh-ul- Islam, which was erected as the 
grand mosque of old Delhi. It was constructed by the 
Mohammedan conqueror from the spoils of twenty-seven 
Hindoo temples at the close of the twelfth century. Some 
of the arches and pillars are exquisitely sculptured. Among 



316 AROUND THE WORLD. 

them stands an enigma in the shape of an iron pillar five 
feet in circumference and fifty feet in length, cast in a sin- 
gle shaft. It stands erect, the base by actual investigation 
liaving been found nearly thirty feet belovs^ the surface of 
the ground. It has stood there more than a thousand 
years, but when, by whom, or for what purpose it was erect- 
ed is unknown. It furnishes sohd testimony, to the weight 
of fifteen or twenty tons, that heavy castings are not among 
the modern achievements of art. 

In all parts of the world there is only a step between 
the sublime and the ridiculous, and no one must expect to 
find it widened in Oriental lands. It is rarely that we 
make the attempt to look through magnificent structures 
and imposing ruins into the regions of the past, without be- 
ing called back to the present by some plaintive cry for 
charity, or a repulsive demand for backsheesh from the 
pretended lords of these crumbling heaps of stone. On 
this occasion, after we had descended from the Minar, we 
were summoned to witness a feat which every traveler 
must witness, and for which every one must pay. We 
were taken to an immense well, eighty-five feet in depth 
and about fifty in diameter. A half dozen nearly naked 
natives stood upon the wall around the edge, waiting for 
the nod that seals a contract to pay them for the exploit. 
We nodded, and at once they sprang with outstretched 
arms and legs, kept in this position until within about 
twenty-five feet of the bottom, when they suddenly straight- 
ened themselves, plunging feet foremost into the water, and 
soon reappeared, swimming on its surface. They speedily 
reached the top by an underground passage and demanded 
their pay, and M^ould not have been satisfied if we had 
given them ten times the usual amount. But it is their 
only means of support, and they have followed plunging 
into the same well from their childhood, and their fathers 
before them for many generations, and perhaps for centu- 
ries. 

I shall not attempt to describe the wilderness of ruined 



& 



DELHI. 



317 



cities, of magnificent tombs and mosques that lie between 
Delhi and the Kootub-Minar ; nor the ruins of the grand 
Astronomical Observatory of Jay Singh, the scientific Ra- 
jah of Jeypore, who erected the complete observatory at 
Benares. It is on the same grand scale on which these 
wealthy nabobs and emperors wrought all their works. 
The dimensions of the gnomon of the equatorial dial as it 
now stands give an idea of its extent, the hypothenuse be- 
ing 118 feet, and the perpendicular 56 feet. 

The English government has done much since the mu- 
tiny for the improvement of Delhi. The Queen's Gar- 
dens, in the midst of the town, are laid out with great 
taste, and carefully cultivated. A collection of living ani- 
mals and birds, and other specimens in natural history, 
adds to the attractions of the park. A large ornamental 
building for public and scientific uses has been erected on 
the Chandnee Chowk, called the Institute. In its large 
municipal hall we had the pleasure of meeting several of 
the native princes. For these improvements the Mogul 
capital is under many obligations to the Rev, James Smith, 
an English Baptist missionar}^, who has also held a commis- 
sion under the government for promoting the scientific ad- 
vancement of the native population. A costly memorial 
church has been erected to commemorate those who fell 
in the terrible mutiny, which burst upon this city with ter- 
rific force at its very beginning. The revolt commenced 
at Meerut, forty miles distant, and after the massacre of 
Europeans, men, women, and children, at that place, the Se- 
poys set out in a body for Delhi, where the native troops 
joined them, and commenced the slaughter of their ofii- 
cers. The magazine, which contained an enormous supply 
of guns, powder, and warlike stores, was in charge of Lieu- 
tenant Willoughby. Seeing the state of affairs, he closed 
and barricaded the gates, and then, laying a train of gun- 
powder, prepared to blow up the arsenal should resistance 
prove unavailing. Mne Europeans kept thousands of Se- 
poys at bay until at length they were exhausted and like- 



318 ABOUND THE WORLD. 

ly to be overpowered, when the match was applied, and 
more than a thousand mutineers were blown into the air. 
All the Europeans in the city who had not made their 
escape on the appearance of the Sepoys were massacred. 
The English families were tied in rows, and shot and sa- 
bred w^ithout mercy. The assassinations were accompanied 
by horrid atrocities. Others, who escaped — tender women 
and helpless children — wandered for days under the burn- 
ing sun, lying down at nights in the jungle. Delhi fell 
completely into the hands of the mutineers, but its recap- 
ture was one of the most heroic achievements of the recov- 
ery of British power in India. 

While at Delhi I had occasion to send homeward letters 
of some importance, and not being disposed to trust them 
to the uncertainties of the native servants at the hotel, I 
determined to deposit them with my own hands in the 
post. It afforded a new occasion for admiration of an in- 
stitution the marvels of which seem to be forgotten in the 
newer and greater marvel of the telegraph. I never cease 
to wonder at the thought that one can go into almost any 
remote corner of the earth, and write his thoughts on a 
slip of paper, and drop it into a little box, even in the dead 
of night, when every one else is asleep, and that with all 
the speed of steam the identical slip of paper will travel 
over land and sea, and search out the friend to whom it 
is addressed, no matter in what other corner of the earth 
he may dwell, and deliver the certified message. With 
the telegraph different and even remote countries are act- 
ually bound together, and although thousands of miles in- 
tervene, you may, by means of a wire, hold by the button 
the one to whom you are speaking. The wire is an abso- 
lute link. But the postal service depends upon detached 
messengers, who must traverse sea and land, and seldom 
do they fail to execute their commission. I do not know 
that I have ever failed to receive a letter out of the num- 
bers that have been addressed to me in all foreign parts, 
or that any one that I have sent has failed to reach its des- 



DELHI. 319 

tination. Some of the former have been great travelers. 
Several that were addressed to me from home while I was 
in India, through the sagacity of ISTew York clerks were 
sent by the way of China, and arrived in the north of In- 
dia after I had left the country ; but they traveled on, 
hoping to reach me at Cairo, where they made another halt 
and search, and then came on to Constantinople, where 
they overtook me precisely five months after they had 
started upon their travels. 

Inquiring at the hotel at Delhi the way to the post-of- 
fice, I was told it was a short distance beyond the fort. I 
traveled onward and onward until I almost despaired of 
reaching the place. At length, after various inquiries of 
natives of all Oriental regions, made chiefly by holding up 
my letters, I was directed to a back alley, which I found 
led to an old temple, or mosque, or something of the sort, 
and this was the Delhi post-ofiice. A Eurasian who spoke 
English was in charge, and seemed to be the only living 
being within the premises. At the window I asked for 
stamps, and was directed to a sleepy Mohammedan who 
was lying on the pavement outside, and who was any thing 
but a promising looking dealer in government securities. 
When I made known what I wanted, he drew from the 
folds of his loose garment a muslin bag, from which he 
produced the requisite amount of stamps, as suspicious in 
appearance as the dealer himself, but I paid for them, and, 
aflixing them to the letters, again presented them at the 
window. The Eurasian advised me to cancel them my- 
self, adding that if I did not some one in the ofiice might 
remove them from the letters and sell them again. Their 
appearance indicated that they had gone through this op- 
eration several times already. It was a new idea to me, 
that of canceling my own stamps before mailing my letters, 
but I complied, and then dropped them into the box, having 
little faith in their ever seeing America. I learned after- 
ward that they were all received in due time, and in good 
condition, and I have now more faith than ever in inter- 



320 AROUND THE WORLD. 

national posts. This is rather a long story about what some 
may think a small matter, but those who have been 10,000 
miles or more from home do not esteem it a small mattei- 
that by international arrangement they may hold direct and 
free communication with those they have left behind, and 
the motto which I have elsewhere recorded as found graven 
over the arch of the post-office at Hong Kong will recur as 
among the expressive sentiments of inspired wisdom : " As 
cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far 
country." 



XXIII. 

AMONG THE HIMALAYAS. 



At Delhi we were more than a thousand miles from Cal- 
cutta, but we had not yet reached the northern limit of our 
journeying in Hindostau. We were bound for the Hima- 
layas, and in some doubt whether to return by the route 
we had taken, or to go up to the Indus, make our way to 
the sea by that river, and so down to Bombay. The weather 
having become sufficiently cool to travel with comfort by 
day, we took the cars at 11 o'clock. In the afternoon we 
passed Meerut, an important military station, and memora- 
ble as the scene of the first outbreak of the mutiny. 

Just at evening we reached Saharunpur, where we left 
the rail to make an excursion of a few days among the 
Himalaya Mountains. This town is pleasantly situated on 
the great plain of India. It was one of the earliest sta- 
tions of the American Presbyterian Mission, and is occupied 
by the Eev. Mr. Calderwood, who met us at the cars, and 
who, with his family, made our short sojourn one of great 
pleasure. An interesting incident connected with our visit 
was the close of the examination of the mission school, and 
I regarded it as a peculiar pleasure to be invited to distrib- 



AMONG THE HIMALAYAS. 321 

lite the prizes to a large number of native youth, two of 
whom bore the familiar names of Alexander McLeod and 
James T. Wylie. 

Saharunpur is a military station, and is the location of 
the government stud. The horses of the country are mis- 
erable specimens of their race, and it became a matter of 
necessity to the military service to establish on a large 
scale a depot where they could be reared from better stock 
and for hardy service. The stalls were not full, but we 
found nearly two thousand horses occupying quarters al- 
most fit for the ofiicers of an army, and altogether superior 
to the cantonments which soldiers often consider very de- 
sirable. The horses, when old enough for service, are found 
to have cost the government from one to two thousand 
rupees each, and those of Arabian blood from two to five 
thousand rupees. Some of the Arabians were splendid an- 
imals. We soon had an opportunity to contrast them with 
the natives of the country bred in the usual way. 

Having made arrangements to cross the Sewalic range 
of the Himalayas from this point, we left Saharunpur in 
the morning in what the natives called an omnibuchus, but 
it bore in plain English on one of the panels the following 
notice : " Omnibus N^o. 1, Gunquaram, Head ofiice Meerut, 
LicensedatSeharunpur, 10 June 1869, tocarry 5 passengers, 
with 62 lbs luggage, Drawnbytwohorses." The two horses 
were comparatively decent animals, and we congratulated 
ourselves that if we had not found real Arabian steeds, we 
had at least fallen upon tolerable specimens of the Indian 
race. But we learned to our sorrow that they were intend- 
ed only for show, designed to entrap unwary travelers by 
making a good appearance on leaving town, on the princi- 
ple upon which strictly honest fruit-dealers inevitably place 
the finest specimens at the top of the basket. The road, on 
starting, was as level as a railway track, well metaled, and 
shaded on either side with bamboo, cassia, and other trees. 
With our gallant steeds we were promising ourselves a tri- 
umphant passage over the mountains, but just as we were 

X 



322 AROUND THE WORLD. 

in the full tide of expectation, only three or four miles out 
of town, we suddenly hauled up at a post-station, and two 
miserable rats were put into the carriage. The word of 
command was given, and the whip duly applied, but the 
more the persuasive arguments were used, the more they 
would not start, excepting backward. One of them insisted 
again and again on putting his heels into the front of the 
omnibuckus, and the other persisted in attempting to stand 
erect on his hind heels. And these were a fair type of the 
horses that we took in at every station on the way, except- 
ing that some of them were even worse. 

The East India Company built one of its finest roads 
over this pass, in order to reach the Dehra Valley and 
ascend the mountains to the summer resorts of Mussoorie 
and Landour. It is as skillfully engineered and as sub- 
stantially built as the roads over the passes of the Alps, 
and decidedly smoother. The summit is pierced by a tun- 
nel reducing the extreme elevation. Long before reaching 
the summit, and when we were approaching the more diffi- 
cult and dangerous parts of the pass, the horses were de- 
tached, and sixteen coolies took the carriage in charge, and 
drew us over and down the descent on the other side, a 
distance of eight or ten miles. "We were accustomed to 
being carried by coolies in sedan chairs in Japan and China 
as well as in India, but not to using them as horses, and, 
had there been any other way of crossing the mountains, 
we should have demurred ; but there was no other (I had 
the offer of elephants on the return), and then these coolies 
have no other means of making a living. It is the business 
which they and their fathers have followed. They would 
lose caste, and lose all means of a livelihood if they should 
attempt any thing else, so that to employ them was a mer- 
cy and not a degradation. Besides, we remembered that 
when some distinguished dancer or singer visits the me- 
tropolis of our own country, or any of the gay capitals of 
Europe, it is not uncommon for young gentlemen of the 
highest breeding to aspire to the level of beasts of burden, 



AMONG THE HIMALAYAS. 323 

and, taking the horses from the carriage of the danseuse or 
cantatrice, to harness themselves like donkeys and drag her 
to her hotel. With these precedents in mind, we quieted 
our scruples in regard to being drawn by coolies over the 
Himalaya Mountains. 

In going through the pass we came upon a splendid, 
full-grown leopard that had just been caught in a trap, and 
were in the region of wild beasts of all kinds. A gentle- 
man whom we met had seen, not long before, a huge wild 
elephant cross the highway on which we were traveling, 
and, in ascending the second range of the mountains the 
following day, we frequently saw around us the fresh 
tracks of leopards in the snow. India, considering the 
density of its population, is marvelously infested with wild 
beasts, and not merely in the mountainous regions, but in 
the jungles of the plain. The government has made great 
efforts to exterminate them, but without any apparent im- 
pression upon their numbers. One reason for this want of 
success is that the natives regard the wild beasts — man-eat- 
ing tigers in particular — as divinities, whose wrath it is 
more safe to appease than to arouse, and accordingly they 
will not hunt or kill them even when exposed to their rav- 
ages.* 

Tiger-hunting is still a favorite sport in many parts of 
India, and it is not uncommon for an ordinary party to 
bag half a dozen tigers in a single excursion. At Calcutta 
I met an American gentleman who had shot five the sum- 
mer previous. 

Since leaving India, I have received from Dr. Fayrer, of 

* "In the Chanda district, one of these man-eaters killed, in a short time, 
127 persons, and stopped all traffic for many weeks on the road. Another 
slew 150 people in three years, causing the abandonment of the villages, and 
throwing 250 square miles out of cultivation. During six years, in Bengal 
proper, 13,401 deaths were reported by wild beasts, of which 4218 were 
ascribed to tigers, 4287 to wolves, 1407 to leopards, and 1 05 to bears ; the 
rest to other animals. The British government, on the other hand, paid in 
the same time $32,500 in rewards to secure the destruction of 18,196 wild 
animals. As much as $500 has been offered for the head of a man-eating 
tiger." — Indian Mail. 



324: ABOUND THE WOBLD. 

Calcutta, who accompanied the Duke of Edhiburg (Prince 
Alfred of England) on his tour in the north of India, the 
following account of a tiger -hunt with elephants in the 
vicinity of Lucknow : 

'•'•February 23d. The camp is situated just on the river 
bank, and the exact spot is known as KuUean Ghaut. The 
narrow stream, divides the British territory from that of Ne- 
paul, the tract of country on the opposite side having been 
given over to the ISTepalese since the mutiny. It contains 
the finest forest land in India. The gift was probably more 
valuable than it was at the time supposed to be. The royal 
standard of Britain is hoisted on one side, while that of the 
prime minister, the virtual ruler of Nepaul, is on the other. 
The Mohan abounds with alligators and gurrials. On the 
22d one of Sir Jung's men was carried off and eaten by an 
alligator when bathing in the rivei\ 

" Fourteen years ago this used to be a splendid hunting- 
ground. It is said to be so still, notwithstanding the en- 
croachments of civilization and cultivation. A tiger has al- 
ready been heard of, and after breakfast he is to be sought 
for. Sir Jung Bahadoor is to cross the river to meet H. R. H. 
in British territory after breakfast, and will accompany him 
throughout the day. The weather is getting warm, fleecy 
clouds obscure the sun, but diffuse rather than intercept its 
rays. Sir Jung's camp resounds with barbaric music. 

"After breakfast the Nepalese minister crossed the river 
on a bridge thrown over for the occasion, and rode up to H. 
R. H.'s camp. He was preceded by his body-guard and a 
band of music. H. R. H. and suite received Sir Jung, with 
Colonel Lawrence, the political agent, Colonel Thomson, the 
commissioner of Seetapore, Captain Young, settlement ofii- 
cer, and eight of his principal sirdars, nearly all colonels, who 
were presented to the duke. The maharajah, who is a slight, 
active, and wiry-looking man of about fifty-three, with fair 
Mongolian features, was dressed in a military uniform, and 
was decorated with the Grand Cross of the Bath. His head- 
dress was made of the most costly jewels, said to be worth 
about £15,000. The visit lasted only a few minutes, and 
shortly after H. R. H. got into the howdah, and, crossing the 
river, was joined by the Maharajah Sir Jung Bahadoor in a 
plain blue cotton shooting-dress, with a broad sola hat, and 
the Maharajah Sir Digbija Singh, G.C. S. I., of Bulrampore, in 
a dress very like it, only colored green. The combined party. 



AMONG THE HIMALAYAS. 325 

with a line of above four hundred elephants — one hundred and 
thirty belonging to H. R. H.'s camp — proceeded in the direc- 
tion of an extensive grass and tree jungle, where the tiger had 
been marked down, and where, during the last few days, he 
had killed several buffaloes. On the way some small game was 
shot, but on approaching the vicinity of the tiger's abode all 
firing ceased, and arrangements were made by Sir Jung for 
surrounding the brute. After beating in a long line through 
a belt of sal forest, skirting the long grass, the line was gradu- 
ally formed into a circle, and the elephants were brought so 
close as to touch each other. It certainly was a magnificent 
sight, and one seldom witnessed. They were all thoroughly 
trained and stanch, as the result proved when the tiger tried 
in vain to break the line, or rather circle. The inclosure be- 
ing complete, H, R. H. on the same howdah, a large square 
one, with Sir Jung Bahadoor, went into the circle, and the 
tiger soon revealed himself, although the grass was as high 
as the howdah, with occasional vacant places. He was fired 
at by the duke alone, as all the rest of the party were re- 
quested not to fire unless the tiger got on any elephant's 
head. H. R. H. wounded him severely, and he made sev- 
eral charges round the line, but the elephants stood firm, 
and he could not get out, though he tried hard to break 
through. He fell at about the third shot from the duke's 
rifle, and then the whole circle closed in on him. He was 
soon padded, and proved to be a fine male tiger ten feet one 
inch in length, and very heavy. 

"It was a most exciting scene; the wildness of the place, 
the magnificent line of elephants, and the steadiness with 
which they and their mahouts carried out the orders of the 
maharajah, were remarkable, and all were much pleased, none 
more so than H. R. H., with the sport ; though perhaps, in a 
strictly sporting sense, the tiger may be considered to have 
been rather hardly used. The Nepalese elephants are well 
trained, and are so frequently employed by Sir Jung in tiger- 
shooting and elephant-hunting that they can not be surpass- 
ed. They are worked in line by the bugle calls, and are 
taught to go at a pace that no other elephants can equal. 
The maharajah is a great sportsman, and spends a considera- 
ble part of each year in the Terai. After padding the tiger 
the party moved on the line, and general shooting com- 
menced. The party returned to camp in the evening, after 
an excellent day's sport on the banks of the Mohan with 
a bag of about twenty deer, one tiger, and a quantity of 
partridges, hares, pea, and jungle fowl. In returning to 



326 AROUND THE WORLD. 

camp just before dark an accident occurred, which was at- 
tended with very serious consequences to a mahout, and in 
which two persons in the howdah had a very narrow escape. 
An old but very famous elephant made a false step, and, be- 
ing weak, fell over against a tree and crushed the howdah. 
The native gentlemen jumped out, while the mahout, an old 
man who, at the time, was not on the elephant's neck, but 
was trying to drag the howdah over to one side, as it had 
become crooked, was crushed between the howdah and the 
tree, and sustained a very serious injury to the left hand. 
The wound was temporarily dressed, and he was taken into 
camjD, where it Avas found necessary to amputate part of the 
hand. But for this unfortunate accident the day had been a 
most successful one. The weather was fine, a moderate 
breeze tempered the heat, and the wild scenery of the for- 
ests, the gi-assy plains on the banks of the river, which are 
themselves very picturesque, with the ever-varying interest 
of the working of the magnificent line of elej)hants, made up 
a scene that has seldom been equaled. 

'•''February 2Mh. Before leaving camp this morning a cam- 
el-man of the maharajah's was brought in with a rather se- 
vere wound in the left thigh, just above the knee. He was 
wading across the Mohan, Which there w^as not up to his 
hips, when he was suddenly seized by a large gurrial, and 
dragged down. Some Sepoys who were close at hand rush- 
ed to the rescue, and one of them so severely wounded the 
great lizard that it let go and tried to make its escape ; he 
followed, thrusting his bayonet into it, and having fired all 
his (six) cartridges, he clubbed his musket and belabored it 
until the stock was broken. The brute by this time was so 
far hors de combat that it turned over as though dead, and 
was dragged on shore, and brought into camp with the man 
it had bitten. Fortunately the grip had not been very fii-m, 
and a portion of integument only, about five inches in cir- 
cumference, had been torn away, leaving a painful and tedi- 
ous, though not a dangerous wound. The gurrial was an 
enormous brute over sixteen feet in length. He was opened, 
and his stomach found quite empty, with the exception of 
about twenty or thirty pebbles, from the size of peas or mar- 
bles to a hen's eggs. These are useful for purposes of diges- 
tion, and are probably always found in the stomachs of these 
Saurians. This incident quite settles the question as to 
whether the gurrial does take other food than fish, although, 
from the conformation of his jaws, he is not able to seize so 
large a morsel, or inflict so great a wound as the alligator." 



AMONG THE HIMALAYAS. 327 

But the wild elephants, tigers, leopards^ wolves, etc., for- 
midable and destructive as they are, may be regarded as 
rather ornamental than otherwise in comparison with the 
lesser vermin which swarm over the whole country during 
the rainy and hot seasons. Of these the most dreaded and 
the most deadly are the snakes, from the hooded cobra, 
which sometimes attains the length of ten feet, down to 
the innumerable venomous snakes no larger than a riding- 
whip. It is stated on good authority that in the year 1869 
there were 11,416 deaths from the bites of snakes in the 
single province of Bengal. From actual statistics, it has 
been estimated that in all India there are from 20,000 to 
40,000 deaths from the same cause e^Qry year. The snakes 
live and multiply not only in the jungle and open country, 
but in the villages and cities. They come into the grounds 
and houses of all classes ; they make their homes in the 
thatch and drop down from the rafters ; they creep into 
the beds ; they lie around among the kitchen utensils, and 
even ensconce themselves in the parlors. I heard many 
thrilling narratives of adventures with these unwelcome 
visitors. The smaller vermin are still more ubiquitous, and 
a still greater annoyance. Scorpions and centipedes are 
abundant, and every where dreaded. The white ants move 
in armies, and are terribly destructive. Scarcely any thing 
in the shape of furniture or clothing escapes their rav- 
ages, and their tastes are decidedly literary. They will go 
through an entire library in an incredibly short space of 
time, leaving nothing to be perused by those who come 
after them. If a book is carelessly left within their reach, 
the form of it may be found, but the entire contents has 
been devoured. 

The day was all spent and the night had overtaken us 
before we had completed the descent of the mountain. 
For hours we rode on in the darkness, until late in the 
evening of the last day of the year 1869 we ahghted at the 
home of the Eev. Mr. Woodside, in the charming valley of 
the Dehra Doon. This valley is one of the gardens of In- 



328 ABOUND THE WORLD. 

dia, a vale of Cashniere transferred- a little to the south. 
Sheltered on all sides by the Himalayas, which stretch 
themselves four and five miles into the skies, it has all the 
year round a genial climate (if the intense heat of the sum- 
mers can be called genial), the trees of all climes, the plants 
of the tropics, and the fruits of the north growing side by 
side. The bamboo flourishes with great luxuriance, and 
the palm rears its stately crown. Extensive tea plantations 
occupy the plain. 

It was a joy which no words can express to meet in this 
lonely but lovely valley, in the very heart of Asia, Ameri- 
can families at home, and to have these homes opened to 
us with as much cordiality as if we had been their nearest 
kindred. The days that we spent there were all red-letter 
days, and when at length we were compelled to say fare- 
well, it seemed more like taking a new departure from 
home than going homeward. 



ON THE HIMALAYAS. 



It was well into the new year before we could say good- 
night or think of rest, but we were to be np and on the 
wing before the morning light. In anticipation of our ar- 
rival at Dehra, Mr.Woodside and Mr. Herron, of the Ameri- 
can Mission, had arranged an excursion to the sanitary cities 
of Mussoorie and Landour, perched upon the very top of 
the second range of the Himalayas, between seven and 
eight thousand feet high. They are crowded during the 
heat of summer, being a delightfully cool resort from the 
plains below, and, indeed, from all parts of Hindostan, but 
in the winter, when we made the ascent, they were desei^ted. 
Simlah, to which the governor general moves his court in 
the summer, is a hundred miles farther north. 



ON THE HIMALA YAS. 329 

We rose long before the sun to greet the opening year, 
A drive of five or six miles across the valley, through a 
charming country, brought us to Raj pore, where the ar- 
rano-ements for ascending; the mountain were to be made. 
One of our number, too feeble to endure the day's ride, was 
taken up in Q,jha7yparh, a sort of sedan chair, the rest mak- 
ing the ascent on horseback. The cities are in full sight 
from the plain below, and show themselves at different 
points during the ascent, but we were long in reaching 
them. Slowly we toiled upward, encoui'aged by an occa- 
sional glimpse of the summit, and often repaid for our toil 
by the views of the Dehra valley, until at length we reached 
a point where the Sewalic range that we had crossed the 
day before sank so low that we could look over upon the 
great plain beyond. The road passed deep precipices, over 
one of which the wife of an English officer, the year before, 
had gone down several hundred feet and was instantly 
killed. Troops of monkeys, looking old and wise enough 
to be the ancestors of Darwin, sat grinning at us from the 
trees. Wild peacocks, with plumage as gay as the domes- 
tic bird, are abundant on the mountain, where they are shot 
as game. We had dined on them two or three days be- 
fore. At length we reached JVIussoorie, and, passing through 
it, were soon at Landour, which is on the very crest of the 
mountain. I could not but marvel at the boldness of the 
man who first conceived the idea of building a town upon 
this lofty ridge. There is not half an acre of level ground 
any where to be found. It is a simple line of peaks, with 
here and there a spot on which an eagle might build his 
nest. It may be a hundred feet down to the next eyrie, 
but every rock on which a house could be fastened has 
been seized upon, until towns of considerable extent have 
grown up. It is a place of great attractiveness to those 
who are suffering from the scorching heat of the plain, but 
all the while that I was on the mountain I was haunted 
with the thought that if I were to spend the night in any 
one of these numerous homes, I might, simply by stepping 




A GORGE IN THE HIMALAYAS. 



ON THE HIMALA YAS. 33]^ 

out of bed, plunge thousands of feet down the mountain 
sides. The elevation is nearly three times that of the Cats- 
kill Mountain House, and it appears as if one might almost 
step into the Dehra Doon. 

I can scarcely attempt to describe the magnificent views 
afforded at this elevation. On one side lies the Dehra 
Doon, one of the fairest valleys in all the East, smiling in 
its verdure and foliage, although it was now midwinter. 
Farther on is the Sewalic i^ange of the Himalayas, and still 
farther, in full view, the great plain of India, fifteen hun- 
dred miles in extent. On the opposite side, toward the 
northeast, peak after peak of the snowy range, stretching 
out into Thibet and Cashmere, lifts its snowy head into the 
clouds. One of these, separated by a narrow valley from 
the point on which we stood, measures 22,330 feet. An- 
other, in the distance, is 25,700 feet high ; and still another. 
Mount Everest, reckoned the loftiest point on the surface 
of the globe, is 29,000 feet by barometrical measurement. 
Several of these peaks have been ascended by adventurers 
and scientific parties, but we did not attempt to go so far 
into the clouds, among the everlasting snows. We were 
ver}'^ hospitably entertained at Landour by Dr. Kellett, the 
British surgeon, who had made preparation to receive us, 
and we left with him a pressing invitation to return our 
call on the next New- Year's day in New York. 

Retracing our way down the mountain sides, we were 
overtaken by the darkness of night, and passed the last 
hour or two in no little apprehension of the precipices 
which invited us below. But we reached our home at Deh- 
ra in safety, having met with no misadventure in this de- 
lightful and ever-memorable excursion to the top of the 
globe. 

The following day, which w^as the day of rest, we spent 
in this peaceful valley, greatly enjoying communion with 
the happy circle of Americans whose hearts are drawn 
closely together in this far-away part of the earth, and who 
became very near to us before we parted with them. In 



332 AROUND THE WORLD. 

the morning I heard a sound which transported me home- 
ward. As it fell upon my ear, the tone was so familiar 
that I exclaimed, " That is one of Meneely's bells ;" and so 
it proved. It had crossed the ocean, and crossed the plains 
of India, and crossed the Himalaya Mountains before us, 
and there, in the heart of Asia, it was calling a congrega- 
tion of native Christians to the house of God. We wor- 
shiped with the natives in their own tongue a part of the 
day, and in the evening, at an English service, I spoke some 
words of Christian encouragement to the Americans and 
others to whom om* tongue is familiar, and so we spent the 
sacred day at the farthest point from home I had ever reach- 
ed; and yet we were not away from home — we were still 
among friends. In one respect I almost envied the mission 
families their lot, for I know not a missionary station in 
any part of the world more charmingly located. It is one 
of the fairest spots in our memories of the lands of the East. 

Rising very early on Monday morning, I rode out with 
Mr.Woodside to the government tea plantations, and gath- 
ered the leaf for myself, though not for use. The tea of 
India we decidedly preferred, while we were in the coun- 
try, to any that we drank in China or Japan, perhaps be- 
cause it was made in more civilized style. We came upon 
a company of Thibetians, one of whom was praying in the 
early morning with a machine, a small wheel turned upon 
a handle — a very convenient way of saying one's prayers, 
and quite as efficacious, no doubt, as using the form of words 
where the heart is not found. The tongue may become a 
praying machine as truly as the wheel of this traveler of 
Thibet. 

Many urgent and tempting inducements were presented 
to us, by the English as well as the American residents, to 
prolong our stay in the beautiful valley, and gladly would 
we have yielded could time have tarried with us. In an- 
ticipation of our arrival, various plans for improving the so- 
journ had been laid. I found that arrangements had been 
made for a public lecture on the Pacific Railroad, which 



ON THE HIMALA TAS. 



333 




A PEAYING MACHINE. 



bad awakened almost as much interest in that remote re- 
gion as in the United States. They had read and heard so 
much about this enterprise, and of the comfort and charm 
of travel by the Pullman palace cars, that they wished to 
have it. all confirmed or dispelled by one who had actually 
traversed the road. Many of the English residents were in- 
tending to take this route homeward. But, having laid my 
own plans for a long time to come, I was compelled to de- 
cline the invitation. Had we yielded to all the tempting 
propositions to lengthen our stay in many places, to see 
more that was to be seen and to enjoy more that was to be 
enjoyed, especially in the society of the friends whom we 



334 AROUND THE WORLD. 

met, we should still be tarrying or wandering far away 
among Oriental scenes, and perhaps should never reach 
home at all. 

The English commissioner sent us a polite offer of ele- 
phants to take our party over the mountains, but we had al- 
ready tried this 'mode of conveyance to our satisfaction. 
We returned to Saharunpur as we came, being taken by 
coolies over the most difficult part of the route. Mr .Wood- 
side and Mr. Herron accompanied us several miles on the 
way, and at the ascent of the mountain we bade them fare- 
well. 

Several months before leaving America, in arranging my 
programme for the year of travel, I decided to spend the 
first week of January, 1870, in this part of India. My ob- 
ject in doing so was to 'pass the week with the American 
Mission families and the native churches in the religious 
services of the period, now known the world over as " the 
Week of Prayer." Lodiana, from which the general mis- 
sion takes its name, is the place from which, in .1858, an in- 
vitation was sent out to Christians every where to spend 
the first week in each year in united prayer to God for the 
conversion of all nations to Christ. That concert is now 
observed throughout Christendom, and has become a bond 
of union and of interest among all who look for the reno- 
vation of the world through the Gospel of salvation. I 
commenced the week at Dehra Doon, then came to Saha- 
runpur, where I joined with the native Christians and the 
mission family in similar services. I spoke to the natives 
through an interpreter, and, bidding them and our friends 
of the mission farewell, went on in the evening of Tuesday 
to Amballa, fifty miles farther north. Here I was wel- 
comed by an old friend. Rev. John H. Morrison, D.D., who 
has spent between thirty and forty years in India, and, after 
joining in the same interesting services at this place, went 
on with him seventy miles to Lodiana, where we met with 
several missionaries and the native Christians in the chapel 
in which, twelve years before, the resolution was adopted 



ON THE HIMALAYAS. 335 

and sent out into all the world to devote the week to this 
holy purpose. In that distant land, and amid the many 
sacred associations, it was a week of peculiar interest. 

I had now reached the extreme northern limit of my 
travels, having abandoned the jjlan of going to Bombay 
by the River Indus and the Indian Ocean on account of 
the low stage of water. Thus far my journeyings had been 
accomplished in exact accordance with my originaV pro- 
gramme, and I was not willing to trust to the uncertainties 
of navigation through a river of shifting bars and shallow 
waters, when I could lay my course by the hour according 
to a previously arranged time-table. 

Before leaving Lodiana I went into the native town to 
witness the manufacture of the Cashmere shawls, one of 
the principal branches of industry. I called also upon two 
Cabool princes, who were living in exile upon a small pen- 
sion from the British government. They were sons of 
Shah Shujah, one of the last native possessors of the re- 
nowned Koh-i-noor diamond, which now belongs to the 
British crown. The early history of this gem is as roman- 
tic and as tragic as that of an Eastern princess. It has cost 
many a prince his eyes, and many a one his life. It was 
found in the mines of Golconda, in Southern India, and 
first belonged to the viceroy of the province, a native of 
Persia, who afterward presented it to Shah Jehan, the Mo- 
gul emperor who built the Taj for Noor Mahal. After 
lying in the imperial treasury near a century, it was carried 
off by Nadir Shah, the king of Persia, who invaded India 
in 1738. It passed through several royal hands. Some of 
its possessors had their eyes put out, and others were assas- 
sinated in the strife to gain possession of the treasure. One 
of these princes, after he had lost his sight, had it taken 
from him on the plea that such a gem could be of no value 
to one who had no eyes with which to see its beauty. The 
father of the princes whom I met at Lodiana, while sharing 
the hospitalities of the Maharajah Punjeet Singh, the Lion 
of Lahore, Avas put to the tortui-e and compelled to give it 



336 AROUND THE WOULD. 

lip to his host. The diamond remained in Runjeet Singh's 
family until the Punjaub was conquered by the British, 
when it was seized and presented by the captors to Queen 
Victoria. 

Dark has been the history of tliis brilliant, reckoned 
second among the most valuable gems of the world. When 
found it weighed 900 carats. It was reduced by cutting, 
first to 279 carats, then to 186, in which state it was shown 
in the Great Exhibition of 1851. It has since been recut, 
and now weighs 123 carats, being valued at about $600,000. 



LODIANA TO BOMBAY. 



On the 6th of January we turned our faces southward 
and homeward, taking the Delhi and the East Indian Rail- 
ways to Allahabad, where we paused again for a few days. 
As we passed through Cawnpore, the native and foreign 
communities were agitated by the recent occurrence of a 
suttee, the burning of a widow on the funeral pile of a 
husband. In studying the state of society in India, I 
found that there is more to commend this practice to Hin- 
doo widows than is generally supposed. They are not 
driven by the mere law of custom to immolate themselves 
when thus bereaved. It is not affection for the husband 
which leads them to cast their own bodies into the flames 
which consume the dead. It is the future of the widow, 
her degraded, hopeless, helpless condition, that makes her 
choose death rather than life. The suttee was abolished 
by law in 1829, and now rarely occurs. All who take 
part in it are regarded as aiding and abetting murder, and 
are treated accordingly. 

Our last evening at Allahabad was spent with a pleasant 
party of English and American residents, our host being a 



LODIANA TO B03IBAT. 337 

veteran English officer who had spent forty years in the 
military service in India. Pie was apparently unaffected 
by the climate, which had sent tens of thousands home to 
England, and many thousands to their long home. The 
evening passed delightfully, and soon after midnight we 
took the cars bound for Jubbulpore. By morning we had 
left the great plain, and were among the hills. There was 
little that was interesting in the face of the country ; no 
picturesque scenery; no high cultivation. By noon we 
reached Jubbulpore, where the only break in steam com- 
munication around the world occurred, a space of 167 
miles to J^agpore. The gap was filled a month or two 
later by the completion of the rail through from Allahabad 
to Bombay, connecting Calcutta with the latter place by 
rail. 

Jubbulpore is the station to which the Thugs were con- 
signed when the murderous clan was suppressed. They 
are organized in a sort of penal colony, under the superin- 
tendence of British officers. Some of the more desperate 
and dangerous characters are in irons, and all are kept at 
hard labor. Even the children of the Thugs are under 
surveillance, and not allowed to go out into the country, 
lest the seeds of this infernal band should again be spread 
over the land, and its horrid crimes be repeated. Here we 
were to make arrangements for the only formidable jour- 
ney that we encountered during all our travels, and it was 
a journey which we have occasion to remember until the 
journey of life is over. We were not shut up to Hobson's 
choice in regard to the mode of conveyance, a variety of 
vehicles and of motive power being presented to our selec- 
tion. There was the palanquin, the ancient carriage of In- 
dia, a long black box in which one person can lie down 
but can not sit up, and which becomes exceedingly tire- 
some after traveling fifty or a hundred miles. It is carried 
by coolieSy four at a time, and if the journey is designed to 
be speedy, relays are required every few miles. They 
travel niglit and day, though in the warm seasons it is cus- 

Y 



338 AROUND THE WORLD. 

tomarj to journey only by night, and seek repose and 
shade during the day. Then there were the bullock-carts, 
drawn by oxen, which are sometimes very fleet, but which, 
in a long journey, make slow progress. As time is of little 
account in Oriental countries, the bullock-carts are a favor- 
ite mode of conveyance. The distance between Jubbul- 
pore and Nagpore is made by these carts in four or five 
days, which was enough to condemn them in our eyes. 
The conveyance that we selected, chiefly on account of 
speed, was the daJc-gharry, the government post-carriage, 
which resembles the palanquin, although larger, is set on 
wheels, and drawn by animals that are dignified by the 
name of horses, three abreast. It has this advantage over 
the palanquin : it can be .arranged so as to enable one to sit 
up, but in general it is furnished with a flat bottom, on 
which a mattress is spread. The passengers (each gharry 
will accommodate two, and no more) lie down with their 
feet toward the horses, and are driven night and day al- 
most at railroad speed, and without anj^ regard to bruised 
muscles or broken bones. 

The entire distance, 167 miles, we were assured would be 
made in twenty-four hours, and, as time was something 
more than money, we made choice of the dak-gharry, not 
wholly unaware of the severe pommeling to which we 
must be subjected, though not altogether aware of the se- 
vere trial of physical strength and endurance that we must 
pass through. Accordingly, I engaged two gharries at the 
government post-ofiice, one for myself and wife, and anoth- 
er for the young lieutenant, paying one hundred rupees, or 
fifty dollars, for each, a large price considering the wear 
and tear of flesh, for which no allowance was made. The 
rest of the party engaged gharries of a private comj)any 
which run their vehicles over the same route. 

It was late in the afternoon wlien we were fairly launch- 
ed. Going out from Jubbulpore for several miles we met 
large numbers of natives, some of them gayly dressed, re- 
turning from a Hindoo festival which they had been cele- 



LODIANA TO BOMBAY. 339 

brating on the hills. Four miles from the town we de- 
scended into the valley of the Nerbndda, where the scenery 
became more attractive. The " Marble Rocks," situated 
on the river some miles below the ghaut at which we cross- 
ed, are celebrated in the annals of this part of India for the 
bold and striking views of which they form a part, and are 
a j)lace of great resort. 

During the whole journey the horses w^ere changed every 
five miles, and every time that fresh ones were put in it ap- 
peared as if they had just been caught wild, and were then 
for the first time put into harness and introduced to the 
gharry. The first move was for all tliree to attempt to 
jump over each other at the same moment of time, an ex- 
ploit the absurdity and impossibility of which they had not 
learned by years of experiment. The next move was for 
half a dozen natives to seize hold of the wheels, and two or 
three to take the horses by the head, while all together set 
up a hideous shout that frightened the miserable beasts out 
of their senses, and away they went as on the wings of the 
wind, under the lash and shout of the driver the whole five 
miles of each post, seldom going at a less rate than ten, and 
often, I believe, twelve miles an hour. We were driven 
with such reckless speed over the plains and down the hills 
that at every new stage we committed ourselves anew to 
the care of Providence, confident that, without special pro- 
tection, we must be dashed into our original elements before 
the next five miles were up. But we came through alive. 

A great part of the distance, especially that which we 
passed in the night, is a jungle, which, like every available 
spot in India, is still kept for raising tigers. At one of the 
stations we learned that two soldiers, who were on duty at 
the place, had been carried off not long before by tigers, 
and eaten. We concluded that there were two tigers at 
least in that part that were not hungry ; but, as night was 
coming on, I took from my traveling-bag, that had been my 
pillow, an excellent revolver, that I had not loaded since 
leaving home, and, carefully inserting five metallic car- 



340 ABOUND THE WOULD. 

tridges, lay down to sleep in the gharry, fully prepared, as 
I supposed, for savage beasts and for still more savage men, 
of v^hich there are such in India even since the Thugs have 
been suppressed. The next morning I found, on examina- 
tion, that in the dim twilight, and in my inexperience with 
fire-arms, more especially with metallic cartridges, I had 
inserted the latter with the powder toward the muzzle and 
the ball toward the stock, so that, if we had been attacked 
during the night by one of the rovers of the jungle,! should 
have shot myself, and not the tiger. 

About two o'clock at night I became delightfully con- 
scious that we were making no headway in our journey. 
The sensation was so peculiar and refreshing I did not 
move to inquire into the cause even after we had been ly- 
ing still, for half an hour or more. Presently I heard a 
gentle tap at^the sliding-door of the gharry, and the coach- 
wan calling "sahihf sahih P'' (gentleman, or sir) in those 
persuasive tones which in the East usually mean lachshish. 
Supposing we were merely changing drivers, and that he 
was rousing me to obtain a fee, which he had no business 
to do at that unseemly time of the night, I made no answer. 
The coachwan retired,- but it was not long before I heard 
the same gentle call — '■^ sahib! sahib P'' I rose, and found 
that the tire of one of the wheels of the other gharry had 
broken, and I was summoned to a council of war by the na- 
tives to determine what was best to be done in the emer- 
gency. "We were happily in a small native village, and not 
in a jungle ; but we might almost as well have been in the 
wilderness, so far as repairing damages was concerned. 
"We found a miserable little smithy, but our only light was 
obtained from a string in a cup of oil, which scarcely made 
the dusky natives visible, and afforded little aid in mending 
the broken wheel. They had already removed the tire, and 
were preparing to weld it and put it on again — a very nice 
operation for an experienced wheelwright, and an impossi- 
bility in the circumstances. I remonstrated very fluently 
in good English against their undertaking so diificult an 



LODIANA TO BOMBAY. 



341 



operation, assuring them that they conld not accomplish it 
if they took a week for it, all of which they understood as 
perfectly as if it had been Hebrew. After three hours 
spent in ineffectual attempts to repair the break, they aban- 
doned it as a hopeless undertaking, substituted a mail-cart 
for the other gharry, and we resumed the journey. 

At fi-equent stages on the road the government has erect- 
ed bungalows, where travelers can rest during the day, or 
spend the night, provided they carry their own beds and 
bedding. They are supplied with a few articles of furni- 
ture, the chief of which is a bedstead, and with the neces- 
sary means of preparing a meal, but they are not intended 
as hotels. About nine o'clock in the morning we reached 
the dak bungalow^ at Seonee, midway between the two ends 
of the journey, and paused for the iirst and only time on 
the route, excepting during the delay connected with the 
accident to the gharry. At this place one of the wheels of 
my own gharry gave ominous signs of failure, and the re- 
mainder of the journey we made with increased speed, and 
with increasing apprehensions of a wreck. But, through 
the merciful care of Providence, we reached the end of our 
ride in safety — more dead than alive, it is true, but with the 
vital spark ready to be resuscitated, as it was by a refresh- 
ing dinner and a good night's rest at ISTagloo's Residency 
Hotel, in the pleasant town of Nagpore. 

This was a journey that I would not undertake again for 
a large part of India ; but, now that it is over and safely ac- 
complished, we look back upon it with mingled feelings of 
pleasure and pain, in which the former predominate — pleas- 
ure in the thought that it is safely over, and that we enjoy- 
ed one of the last opportunities that could be afforded to 
any foreigners of sympathizing with the multitudes who, 
through all the past ages, have been pounded almost into 
gelatine by traveling in the dak-gharry over the hills of 
Western India. It is a luxury which can never again be 
enjoj^ed on any of the long routes. Travelers will hereaft- 
er pass fi'om Calcutta to Bombay, by the way of Allahabad, 



342 AROUND THE WORLD. 

without leaving the cars. The dak-gharry is among tlie 
joys departed never to return. 

We v^ere still 500 miles from Bombay, but we had the 
rail before us all the way. Our route lay through the 
Mahratta country, famous in the wars of the past centu- 
ries, and even in the conquest of the country by the Brit- 
ish. All dav long, every few miles we came upon the old 
forts standing in the midst of the plains, some of them 
having walls of great height. The time was when in this 
whole region no one was safe unless shut in by the walls 
of a strong fortress. One conqueror after another has 
swept over it with his armies, and even rival petty chief- 
tains have made prey of the people and their substance. 
It is now devoted to the arts of peace. 

The country through which we were passing is the great 
cotton region of India, a large portion of the land having 
been appropriated to its cultivation since the rebellion in 
our own country compelled the English manufacturers to 
look for a supply from some other source than the United 
States. India is the oldest cotton -growing and cotton- 
manufacturing country in the world. It produced cotton 
thousands of years ago, and from the earliest accounts cot- 
ton fabrics have formed the clothing of the inhabitants. 
ISTothing equal to the finer qualities and the long staple of 
our Southern States has been produced, but it affords a 
large supply of the shorter staple. The production was 
immensely stimulated by the war in America cutting off 
the supply. The value of the crop of 1859-60 exported 
from India was £5,637,624. In 1864-5 it had risen to 
£37,573,637. After this there was a great falling off in 
its value, though not in quantity, the exports of the crop 
for 1869-70 amounting to £19,079,138. 

We were at Egutpoora, nearly 100 miles from Bombay, 
early in the morning. From this point onward the road 
passes through mountain scenery bold and striking, a per- 
fect contrast to the most of India over which we had trav- 
eled. Within a few miles we passed through a long sue- 



B03IBA Y. 343 

cession of tunnels, scarcely emerging from one before we 
plunged into another. This portion of the railway was 
immensely expensive, but it was among the first projected 
in the grand system of railways for opening up and forti- 
fying the country. It connects the port of Bombay not 
only with the Deccan, but with the whole of northern and 
eastern India. Arriving at Bombay at eleven in the morn- 
ing, we found pleasant quarters at the Byculla Hotel, in 
the suburl3S of the city. 



BOMBAY. 

Bombay is situated at the extremity of an island of the 
same name. It was taken by the Portuguese after the 
capture of Goa, in the early part of the sixteenth century, 
and ceded in 1661 to Charles II., of England, as part of 
the dowry of his bride, the Infanta Catharine. King 
Charles gave it to the East India Company a few years 
later, and in 1865 it was made the seat of the chief presi- 
dency. On the opening of communication with England 
by the Red Sea route it received a new impetus, and its 
importance, if not its supremacy as the commercial capi- 
tal of India, has been secured by the opening of railroad 
communication with all parts of the country. Its popula- 
tion and commerce have rapidly increased until it has be- 
come the successful rival of Calcutta. It is now a delicate 
matter to express an opinion in India as to which is the 
chief city, but it will be the fault of the people of Bom- 
bay alone if they do not take the lead. Admirably loca- 
ted, both in regard to its internal and foreign trade, at the 
western gateway of India, it is in direct communication 
with the richest parts of the country, and at the nearest 
point of communication with the whole western world. 



344 AROUND THE WORLD. 

Calcutta, on the other haud, is at the far side of India, 
near the head of the Bay of Bengal, and 100 miles from 
the mouth of a river which can be entered by large ves- 
sels only at certain stages of the tide. Bombay has a fine 
open harbor — a little too open, it is true, during the preva- 
lence of the southv^rest monsoons, but it may be farther 
protected without great expense, and the navies of the 
world might here ride at anchor. As one of the results of 
the American war, which opened a market for the cotton 
of India, and other causes, the city became inflated in 1865 
with the promises of a golden harvest, and launched out 
into extravagant speculations, as if the business of the 
world was to be concentrated at this point. But the bub- 
ble burst almost as soon as it was blown, and a disastrous 
collapse occurred. Waste lands, that had commanded enor- 
mous prices, were suffered to lie waste, and those which 
were bought at fabulous rates while still under water were 
never reclaimed from the sea. The people of Bombay be- 
came sadder, but wiser, from this experience, and now the 
city is on a career of assured prosperity. All my observa- 
tions convinced me that it is destined to be the great city 
of India, if not of the whole Eastern world. 

In its general aspect Bombay is the most lively city of 
the Indies. Its population of nearly a million is very mul- 
tifarious. Nearly all the tribes of Hindostan are repre- 
sented, Hindoos, Mussulmans, Parsees, Indo-Britons, Indo- 
Portuguese, Europeans of various nations, Americans, and 
natives of Western Asia. The costumes of the people are 
varied and gay beyond description. The streets are throng- 
ed by a busy multitude on foot, on horseback, and in car- 
riages, many of the latter gaudily trimmed and drawn by 
bullocks. 

The city is not so remarkable for its public buildings or 
its public institutions as Calcutta, and for the reason that 
the latter has been the real capital of the country, the seat 
of the East India Company, where its wealth was concen- 
trated, and in a great measure expended. But some pop 



B02IBA T. 



345 




A UTTLLOCK CAEEIAGE. 



tions of the town, especially that known as the Fort, which 
is commensurate with the ancient bounds of the city, con- 
tain many fine buildings. The town-hall is a massive struct- 
ure, with apartments not only for the public service, but for 
scientific and liistorical purposes. .The rooms of the Eoyal 
Asiatic Society, with its library and museum, are full of in- 
terest to every intelligent stranger who desires to study the 
past as well as the present of India. The Elphinstone Cir- 
cle, named from the Hon. Mountstuart Elphinstone, who 
succeeded to the Bombay presidency in 1819, is the Wall 
Street of Bombay, and the centre of its most important 
commercial operations. The government was erecting new 
and spacious buildings for public use, and the whole for- 
eign portion of the town was putting on the promise of 
coming greatness. 

The Parsees, numbering more than 100,000 of the popu- 
lation of Bombay, embody a great part of the wealth of the 
city, and are the most intelligent and enterprising of the 
natives of the country, No small part of the mercantile 



346 AROUND THE WORLD. 

business of the East is in their hands, and leading honses 
have branches in Paris and London, as well as in Eastern 
Asia. Their dress is peculia;r, partly European and partly 
Oriental. They have a sort of caste like the Hindoos, and 
are forbidden to marry excepting among their own people ; 
nor do they usually eat what has been cooked by one of 
another religion, A well-educated Parsee gentleman and 
his wife were among my companions in crossing the Pacific 
Ocean. They mingled freely with the other passengers 
and ate at the same table with them. On returning to 
Bombay, he was called to account for violating the rules 
of his race, and his situation became so uncomfortable in 
consequence that he removed to London to take charge of 
a branch of the house with which he is connected. With 
all their intelligence, the Parsees are still greatly under the 
power of their ancient superstitions, and there are no more 
bigoted religionists among the tribes of Asia, not even 
among the Mohammedans. In their religion they are dis- 
ciples of Zoroaster, who lived several centuries before Christ, 
and they are usually known as fire-w^orshipers, reverencing 
the sun, moon, and other heavenly bodies, and even fire 
itself, although the more intelligent do not admit that they 
pay actual worship to these objects. The distinction is 
very much the same with that of Romanists in regard to 
the worship of images ; the intelligent and truly devout 
may use the image as an aid to the imagination, while the 
ignorant worship nothing but the image. In their temples 
fire is kept continually burning by priests, who maintain 
that it has never been extinguished. They feed it with 
fragrant spices, and treat it as if it were a god. The priests 
even cover the lower part of their faces with a mask when 
they approach the sacred fire, lest they should defile it with 
their breath. Their reverence for fire forbids them even 
to burn tobacco into smoke. 

Nothing connected with the Parsees is more peculiar 
than their treatment of the dead. They have a large cem- 
etery on Malabar Hill, near Bombay, the highest ground in 



BOMBAY. 



347 



the vicinity, selected on this account, that no one may look 
into it. The very approaches to the spot are guarded with 
the most jealous care by men who form a distinct class or 
caste, and who, from one generation to another, are not per- 
mitted to mingle with the rest of the people. The ceme- 
tery contains a building devoted to the preservation of the 
sacred fire, buildings for the priests and those who have 
charge of the dead, and five round stone towers called 
" Towers of Silence," each about sixty feet in diameter, 
and forty or fifty in height. These are the receptacles of 
the dead. 

When a death occurs, the body is taken to the gate of 
the cemetery and delivered into the hands of the priests. 
No one is allowed to enter the walls with the dead. After 
a prescribed ceremonial, the body is taken to one of the 
towers and laid on a grate upon the top of one of these 
towers. A flock of hideous vultures is always waiting to 
devour the flesh, and the bones fall into the body of the 
tower below in an indiscriminate heap. It is the most re- 
volting mode of disposing of the remains of departed 
friends of which I have any knowledge, but the Parsees 
adhere to it with a tenacity which borders on fanaticism. 

Through the influence of the Parsee gentleman to whom 
I have alluded, we obtained an order from a high official 
in their community to visit the cemetery. Even with this 
order we had much difficulty in gaining admittance, and 
were constantly followed and closely watched by the at- 
tendants. We walked through the grounds, which were a 
picture of desolation, and saw the vultures seated upon the 
towers, anxiously awaiting their human prey ; but the arca- 
na of the place were carefully guarded. We had already 
seen more than often falls to the lot even of the Parsees 
themselves. 

The Plindoo mode of disposing of the dead is far less re- 
pulsive. We had been dining one evening with a friend 
whose bungalow was on Malabar Hill, the most beautiful 
of the suburbs of Bombay. Tiie drive was through groves 



348 AROUND THE WORLD. 

of cocoauut palms, and the bungalow was embowered in a 
luxuriant growth of vines and trees, making the place one 
like fairy-land. It was late when we returned to town. 
Across the bay, on the Bombay side, a row of brilliant lights 
stretched along the shore. In the deep stillness of mid- 
night and the strangeness of the whole scene, they had a 
mysterious look, and, on inquiry, I learned that they were 
the funeral piles on which the Hindoos were burning their 
dead, a more appropriate use of fire than to worship it, and 
a more becoming mode of treating the remains of the de- 
parted, ashes to ashes, than the horrid funeral rites of the 
Parsees. 

We devoted one day while at Bombay to a visit to Ele- 
phanta, a lonely island lying six or eight miles across the 
bay. which we reached by a sail-boat placed at our disposal 
by Mr. Kittredge, of the American house of Stearns, Ho- 
bart & Co. We were accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. Hard- 
ing, and Mr,, and Mrs. Ballantyne, of the American Mission, 
Mr. Chauntrell, an English barrister, and Dr. Bhau Daji, a 
Hindoo gentleman, to whom I was indebted not only for 
many polite attentions, but for much scientific information, 
as well as for many hours of pleasant intercourse. He has 
a high standing as a man of science, and is in correspond- 
ence with men of learning in this country and in Great 
Britain. The caves of Elephanta are deserted Buddhist 
temples, immense caverns cut into the solid rock. Colossal 
Buddhist figures still remain in comparative preservation. 
Their history is not known with any degree of certainty, 
but they are supposed to have been made in the sixth cen- 
tury. 

Another day was spent, at the invitation of Dr. Bhau 
Daji, in a visit to more extensive excavations in the moun- 
tains of Kenhari, twenty miles from Bombay. We left in 
a carriage before daylight, and drove twelve or fourteen 
miles to the mountains, where horses and palanquins were 
awaiting us. I chose one of the latter, and, bestowing my- 
self in the box, was soon sound asleep, and woke up in the 



BOMBAY. 



349 



wilderness as we were approaching the object of onr ^dsit. 
Like the caves of Elephanta, the excavations at Kenhari are 
involved in mystery, but they are supposed to have formed 
a Buddhist monastery. They are more than seventy in 
number — one room a cathedral, with pillars and aisles, all 
cut into the solid rock as square and smooth as the rooms 
of a house — are scattered along the mountain in galleries, 
and are not only deserted, but miles from human habita- 
tions. No fitter place for anchoretic life and meditation 
could be found if it were formerly as lonely as it is now. 

One morning Dr. Bhau Daji invited us to his house, ro- 
mantically situated in the midst of a grove of tall cocoanut 
palms, to witness the performances of a troop of Indian 
jugglers. We had seen a similar performance at Delhi, at 
the house of an English gentleman with whom we dined, 
but were in no wise impressed with their superiority to their 
own craft in other lands. Those at Bombay were more ex- 
pert, but not one of them could equal Hermann, the pres- 
tidigitateur, in the variety and skill of his marvelous feats. 
From what I saw and all I heard, I am inclined to believe 
that the tricks of Indian jugglers, so celebrated the world 
over, appear more wonderful as rehearsed in the stories of 
travelers than when seen on their own ground. The great 
feat which I have often heard described as the marvel, if 
not the miracle of such performances in the East, the al- 
most instantaneous growth of a mango-tree from the seed 
to fruit-bearing, in the dry earth, before your eyes, I saw 
twice in India, but I saw enough to make it clear that it 
was mere sleight-of-hand. There were other performances 
that were to me more wonderful than this, in which there 
was no attempt at deception. 

While w£ were enjoying the delightful shade of the palms 
in the compound of our host, the servants ran as nimbly as 
monkeys up the tall cocoanut-trees, and threw down the 
fresh fruit for our entertainment. But neither the milk 
nor the meat is at all tempting in any stage. I prefer to 
leave the cocoanuts to be manufactured into oil, for which 
purpose they are raised all over tlie East. 



350 AROUND THE WORLD. 

Among the curious places in Bombay was the hospital 
for aged and infirm animals. It was open to all races save 
the human, from the elephant down to the smallest domes- 
tic animal. If any poor dog happens to break his leg, or 
meets with any disaster, or is overtaken by sickness, he will 
find provision here for his comfort and relief, if he can bo 
relieved. A large square in the midst of the city, with suit- 
able shelter, is devoted to this benevolent though rather 
sentimental object. The numerous invalids and unfortu- 
nates were any thing but a pleasing sight, and it appeared 
to me more of a work of mercy to end their misery than to 
prolong their days. 



BOMBAY TO CAIRO. 



Whatever may be the feelings of the reader, I leave this 
land of the Hindoo and the Mohammedan, of palms and 
palaces, with tlie deepest regret that time will not wait 
while I tarry longer among its strange scenes. Thus far it 
has been the most interesting country that we have reached, 
not alone nor chiefly for its Oriental and tropical scenery ; 
nor for its venerable and varied history, running back 
through thousands of years, and down through changing 
dynasties, some of which have been maintained in splendor 
such as the world has not seen elsewhere ; nor for the re- 
markably diversified character of its numerous races, wliicli 
altogether make up one of the most curious pieces of mo- 
saic that the population of the globe will furnish ; nor for 
the monuments of the past, which exceed in beauty, if not 
in magnificence, all that the ages have left in other lands ; 
but still more interesting in the changes that are now tak- 
ing place in the condition of its people, and in the promises 
for the future which every where meet the eye and strike 
the ear. 



BUMBA Y TO CAIRO. 351 

Not the glory of the past, the age of " barbaric gold and 
pearls," but a greater glory is yet to rest on India. I have 
looked with the deepest satisfaction upon the signs of a 
coming higher civilization, and the evidences that the light 
that is to lighten all nations is dawning upon its two hun- 
dred millions. India is not now altogether a land of dark- 
ness. The mass of its people are still bowing down to its 
gods of wood and of stone, or following the false prophet, 
but from Cape Comorin to the Himalayas the Sun of right- 
eousness is lighting the peaks here and there, and giving 
sure promise of the coming day when Christianity shall tri- 
umph over superstition and false religion. 

I rejoice heartily that India is under British rule. What- 
ever may be the errors, or even the crimes of the past, in 
connection with the extension of British arms, and in the 
complicity of the governing powers with idolatry, now that 
they have been so fearfully expiated in the mutiny of 1857, 
and since the power has passed directly into the hands of 
the home government, a new destiny awaits the land and 
the people. 

I had timed our arrival at Calcutta so as to spend in In- 
dia the only two months of the year in which one can 
travel with comfort, December and January ; and our de- 
parture, so as to avoid the stifling heat of the Red Sea, 
which becomes almost insupportable in summer. On the 
24:th of January we went on board the steamer Krishna, 
which was lying at anchor in the harbor. The waters of 
the bay were quiet, but outside we had a taste of the sea. 
As we passed the light-ship, a boat came off to the Krishna 
to put a passenger on board. It was already dark ; the 
waves were running high ; and as a sailor in the boat 
caught the rope that was thrown him, the boat receded 
with a returning swell, he was jerked into the angry sea 
and left struggling with the waves, the boat drifting far 
astern. Almost instantly the first officer of the Krishna 
jumped into the sea to rescue the man, and then there 
were two in great danger. They clung desperately to the 



352 ABOUND THE WORLD. 

rope, and twice were drawn to the ship and part way up 
its side, when a returning wave overwhehned them, and 
they dropped again into the seething waters, the officer cry- 
ing out " I'm done," and apparently giving up all hope. It 
was a frightful scene. In the darkness there seemed little 
prospect of saving either of them, and w^ith anxious hearts 
we peered into the black waters, and could only pray that 
a merciful God might strengthen their arms and rescue 
them from what appeared an almost inevitable fate. The 
officer at length caught a buoy which was thrown over- 
board, the sailor clung to the rope, a boat was lowered, 
and, to the great joy of all, the men were both brought on 
board. It was all the work of a few minutes, but it seem- 
ed an age as I watched them in their struggle for life, and 
when they were safe I felt as if I had myself been rescued 
from a watery grave. 

Once off the coast, the voyage through the Indian Ocean 
as far as Aden, 1660 miles, was without any striking inci 
dent. A strong northeast monsoon kept our ship steady, 
helped us on our course, and suppHed us with plenty of 
fresh air, a great blessing in these Eastern seas. Our pas- 
sengers were chiefly East India officers, in the military and 
civil service, with their families, and as w^e gradually be- 
came acquainted, the time passed pleasantly away. On the 
morning of the sixth day the shores of Arabia were in 
sight, and toward evening we descried the heights of Aden, 
ninety miles to the east of the entrance of the Eed Sea. It 
is a mass of rock, connected with the main land by a low, 
sandy neck, and towering up to the height of 1776 feet. 
It was held by the Portuguese when they M-ere strekhing 
their arms and their commerce into the East. It was ca]> 
tured by the Turks in 1538, and held for three centuries; 
but in 1839, for an outrage committed upon a vessel sail- 
ing under English colors, the British government seized the 
place, strengthened its fortifications, and have kept a large 
garrison upon it ever since. It is called the Gibraltar of 
the East on account of its commanding position near the 



BOMBAY TO CAIBO. • 353 

entrance to the Red Sea, and its great natural strength as 
a fortress. Owing to some peculiarity in its situation, it 
seldom rains at Aden, three or four years passing without 
a drop falling from the clouds, even when it rains on the 
main land near by. To supply this deficiency, the early 
occupants of the place, how long ago is not known, but it 
is conjectured as early as the sixth or seventh century, ex- 
cavated immense tanks in the rocks, collecting the water 
when it fell, and preserving it for years. These ancient 
cisterns are still in use, and afford an abundant supply. 
Not long after we had touched at Aden there came a heavy 
rain, a flood, which not only filled the tanks, but swept 
away houses, and caused great destruction of property. 

We took on board a small flock of Arabian sheep of the 
broad-tail species, the finest mutton in the East, and an im- 
portant addition to our commissariat, and were again un- 
der way. Passing through the Straits of Bab-el-Maudeb 
(the Gate of Tears, or the Gate of Desolation, as it is va- 
riously interpreted), we entered the sea which, in all ages, 
has been a terror to navigators. This narrow strip of wa- 
ter covers a small space on the map, but it is more than 
1200 miles in length, making a voyage of five or six days 
by steam, during which the shore is seldom seen on either 
side. Its navigation is difficult and perilous. The water is 
of great depth, but rocks and islands are scattered. through 
it, and coral reefs abound, which seldom lift their heads 
above the waves to warn the sailor of his danger. The 
shores are almost entirely destitute of light-houses, and are 
occupied by not the most hospitable races of men, where 
inhabited at all. High winds prevail a great part of the 
year, making the navigation particularly undesirable for 
sailing vessels, which are now seldom seen. 

Near the Straits, wdiich are about twelve degrees north 
of the equator, we had another view of the constellation of 
the Southern Cross, which, in the clear skies of the Red 
Sea, was very brilliant in the early morning. The first 
evening we were off the town of Mocha, on the Arabian 

Z 



354 AROUND THE WORLD. 

side, a name suggestive of good coffee, which lived in our 
memories, but formed no part of our experience on ship- 
board. The second day we were off the Zebayer Islands, 
called the Twelve Apostles, nearly opposite the landing- 
place of the British expedition against Abyssinia. We had 
on board one of the heroes of the war, who had served also 
with distinction in the suppression of the mutiny in India. 
He bore many marks of his heroism, having, as it was said, 
been cut to pieces and put together again. "We afterward 
fell in with one of the original captives of King Theodore. 
He had his chains with him, and was bearing them home 
as a trophy. Farther on we passed Djiddah, the port of 
Mecca. 

Two or three days before reaching Suez we encounter- 
ed a fierce north wind, which never subsided until we were 
on shore. Every few minutes, on the last day or two of 
the voyage, a heavy sea would break 'over the bow of the 
ship, washing her decks from stem to cabin, which, with 
the cold blasts from the north, drove us all under shelter, 
and many to their berths. Nor were the high winds, and 
the coral reefs on which the British steamer Carnatic had 
struck and gone down a few weeks before, a large number 
of the passengers perishing, our only perils. In the midst 
of the gale and in the midst of the rocks our captain pre- 
pared himself to meet the danger by a drunken carousal, 
and became crazy with rum, one or two of his officers fol- 
lowing his example. How we came safely through we 
never knew, excejDting that we had the guidance and pro- 
tecting care of the great Pilot who holds the winds in his 
fists and the waters in the hollow of his hand. This cap- 
tain afterward fell overboard in the harbor of Bombay and 
was drowned. 

It was not until the evening of the sixth day from our 
entering the Straits, and the twelfth from our leaving 
Bombay, that we dropped anchor at Suez — it may have 
been upon one of the chariot -wheels of Pharaoh. The 
sun liad set before we reached the anchorage, which is five 



BOMBAY TO CAIRO. 



355 



miles from the head of the gulf and from the town. As 
we could not go ashore until we had been inspected by the 
health officer, we fired heavy guns and threw up rockets, 
but there was no response, and we were compelled to 
spend another night upon the sea. But we were at rest, 
and the perils of the voyage were over. 

Suez is not an insignificant town. It has a population 
of several thousands; its bazars are well supplied with 
goods for Oriental consumption, and there is more of an 
air of activity and business about it than one might expect 
in such a desert region. When the overland route to In- 
dia w^as opened a few years since, Suez had a revival of 
the traffic it enjoyed before the discovery of the route to 
the Indies by the Cape of Good Hope ; but the more re- 




356 AROUND THE WORLD. 

cent opening of the Snez Canal may be another blow to its 
prosperity, by making all transhipment of passengers and 
goods needless. 

Immediately on landing and getting comfortably estab- 
lished in the Suez Hotel, I took my Bible to read over the 
inspired account of the Exodus from Egypt, and went out 
to compare the account with the face of the country. It 
was the same land over which Moses led the children of 
Israel more than thirty -three centuries before. The same 
sands were still there, though the footprints of the depart- 
ing host had been obliterated ; the same sea rolled before 
us ; the same mountains frowned from the southeast ; the 
general aspect of the scene was unchanged. It was not 
difHcult to obtain a perfectly satisfactory idea of the route 
by which the Israelites came thus far in following the 
cloudy pillar, although the precise point at wliicli the mi- 
raculous crossing of the sea took place is still one of the 
problems of sacred geography. There is no doubt in re- 
gard to the route by which they came from Succoth to the 
sea. The path is clearly defined by the features of the 
country. A precipitous mountain range stretches from 
the shore diagonally to the northwest, leaving a sandy 
plain between it and the sea, from which they could not 
diverge. All this was so clear that, as I looked over the 
vast plain, I could almost imagine I saw the great host on 
their march, the pillar of cloud leading them on by day. 
and the great curtain hung up by the hand of God to pro- 
tect them from their pursuers by night. But where was 
the point at which they heard the command of God to go 
forward, and were so marvelously delivered from their en- 
emies ? 

Dr. Robinson is of the opinion that the crossing took 
place very near the site of the modern city of Suez ; but 
his reasoning savors rather of rationalistic explanation than 
of a full acknowledgment of the grandeur of the miracle 
by which God effected this deliverance of his people. He 
explains away the miracle by referring it to natural and 



BOMBAY TO CAIRO. 357 

secondary causes, and in order to do so locates tlie cross- 
ing where the sea is now scarcely half a mile wide, and 
only deep enongh to be navigable. It is true there are in- 
dications that the sand has encroached upon the sea, and 
that the latter was here more than a mile wide in former 
times ; but even this scarcely makes the necessity of a stu- 
pendous miracle evident. From the point selected by Dr. 
Kobinson they might have moved several miles farther 
south, or have passed up to the head of the sea farther 
north, as the shores in either direction are perfectly smooth. 
Every thing in the divine record shows that they were 
^hut up to entering the bed of the sea at the very spot on 
which they stood when the Lord said unto Moses, " Where- 
fore criest thou unto me ? Speak unto the children of Is- 
rael that they go forward ; but lift thou np thy rod and 
stretch out thine hand over the sea and divide it, and the 
children of Israel shall go on dry ground in the midst of 
the sea." 

From an examination of these localities, it appeared to 
me much more probable that they followed the sandy plain 
to the south, where the sea and the precipitous mountain 
range converge, and where it was impossible for them to 
naove excepting in one direction. Pharaoh and his hosts 
were in their rear ; they had fled until they could flee no 
farther ; a mountain wall was on one side, and the deep sea 
upon the other : God divided the waters before them, and 
they passed through the midst of the sea. 

At the point to which I refer the Red Sea must be five 
or six miles in width, and of great depth ; but the M-hole ac- 
count indicates that the crossing took place where the sea 
was wide. The Egyptians, pursuing the Israelites, " went 
in after them to the midst of the sea, even all Pharaoh's 
horses, his chariots, and his horsemen." It was in the midst 
of the sea that they proposed to turn back when they found 
that the Lord was fighting for the Israelites against the 
Egyptians. They turned and fled ; but when the sea came 
back to its bed, of the vast army that had gone into it " there 



358 ABOUND THE WOBLD. 

remained not so miicli as one of them." The simple narra- 
tive, the Song of Moses which he sang with the children of 
Israel to celebrate their deliverance, the allusions to it in 
other parts of the Holy Scriptures, show that it was a sab- 
lime miracle, not accomplished by a concurrence of ordina- 
ry means, and therefore that there was no occasion for select- 
ing a place where it could be easily performed, but rather 
the contrary. The drying up of the waters was not effect- 
ed alone by the strong east wind, for " the children of Israel 
went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground, and 
the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand and 
on their left." In the Song of Moses it is said, " The floods 
stood upright as an heap, and the depths were congealed in 
the heart of the sea." This is not all poetic imagery. 

While 'we were yet in the far East, on the way to Egypt, 
the ceremonial of the formal opening of the canal connect- 
ing once more the waters of the Mediterranean and the 
Red Seas took place, but the passenger lines were not yet 
established when we reached Suez. In connection with 
two or three English gentlemen, one of them a member of 
Parliament who had been sent out to investigate the ex- 
penses of the Abyssinian War, we chartered a small steam- 
er at Suez to explore the canal, laid in a stock of provisions 
at the hotel, and left Suez about eight o'clock in the morn- 
ing, expecting to be at Ismailia, fifty miles distant, by three 
in the afternoon. We steamed quietly along, stopping here 
and there to examine the work, climbing the high walls of 
sand thrown up on both sides to look out over the desert. 
We were well on our way toward the end of our inland 
voyage when an ominous gathering of steamers loomed up 
before us, very suggestive of one of those dead-lopks pre- 
dicted before the opening. We would fain have convinced 
ourselves that it was a mirage of the desert, but it was no 
unsubstantial apparition. We found, on coming to a halt, 
that the stoppage was produced by a float made fast in the 
middle of the canal for the purpose of blasting rock at the 
bottom, and that no craft could pass until the drilling was 



BOMBAY TO CAIRO. 



359 



completed and the blast exploded, which would probably 
be near midnight— as it proved, and we did not arrive at 
Ismailia, which is on one of the lakes of the canal, until one 
or two o'clock in the morning. 




MGHT ON THE CANAL. 



The Suez Canal was not a new idea to the man by whose 
energy and perseverance the seas have now become practi- 
cally connected. It was projected by the ancient Egyp- 
tians, who must have had some sort of communication 
through the lakes across the isthmus. In lY98,]Srapoleon 
I., then commanding the French expedition to Egypt, pro- 
posed opening a ship canal through the same route. A 
commission appointed to make the survey reported that the 
Red Sea was thirty feet lower than the Mediterranean, 
which was considered a fatal objection to the enterprise; 
but the survey of the overland route to India in 1830 es- 
tablished the fact that the two seas are on the same level. 



360 AROUND THE WORLD. 

M. de Lesseps was then in Egypt, attached to the French 
consulate. He at once caught up the idea with enthusiasm, 
and by indomitable perseverance carried it out to its pres- 
ent success. 

It was strange to find in old Egypt a city of palaces and 
parks not more than five years old ; . but such is Ismailia. 
It has sprung into existence by the touch of the Suez Canal, 
with as much rapidity and a hundred-fold more stability 
and beauty than the towns on the Pacific Railroad. From 
this point we struck out into the desert, and for hours trav- 
ersed the sandy waste, the picture of dreary desolation. 
Once in a while we came upon some weary travelers or 
traffickers, who, with camels or donkeys, were dragging 
their way through the sands ; but even this did not relieve 
the prospect, for we pitied the travelers who were making 
such slow progress, while we were driving onwa,rd by the 
force of steam over an iron pathway. 

We were going down to the valley of the Nile by the 
same route which Abraham took when he went into Egypt 
to escape famine ; by which the sons of Jacob went down 
to buy corn ; and by which the grand funeral procession 
returned bearing the body of the patriarch to its resting- 
place in the cave of Machpelah (where, I have no doubt, it 
still slumbers undisturbed). At length we descried in the 
distance an oasis, a grove of palms, a beautiful sight always, 
but most beautiful when seen in the distance over a sandy 
waste, bearing the promise of green fields, upon which we 
presently came. They lie along the margin of the canal 
dug to carry the refreshing waters of the Nile over a wider 
extent of country. 

We caught sight of Cairo just as the sun was going 
down beyond the Pyramids. Its golden light streamed 
over the domes and minarets, pouring itself in a fiood upon 
the green fields and among the palms, and drawing a beau- 
tiful contrast between the buildings and the dark foliage 
in which they were set. The Citadel,with its Grand Mosque, 
towered above the rest of the city, having for its back- 



BOMBAY TO CAIRO. 3^1 

ground the gray mountain, the mausoleum of long-buried* 
generations. The broad valley of the Nile, dressed in liv- 
ing green, was spread out before us. For a while we for- 
got that we were travelers from a new world, and fell to 
dreaming of the Pharaohs and the patriarchs, until that in- 
tensely modern invention, the shrill whistle of the locomo- 
tive, restored us to consciousness, and summoned us to alight 
in the city of splendor, and dirt, and donkeys. 

We had not seen the interior of our trunks since leaving 
India, and among the most pleasing anticipations of reach- 
ing Cairo was the general renovation that we were to un- 
dergo when we should again be admitted to the arcana of 
our luggage. But, on presenting our tickets, we were in- 
formed that the luggage had been left behind at Zagazig, 
half way to Ismailia. All we could do was to repair to 
Shepheard's Hotel and wait until it should arrive, if it came 
at all. I had no expectation of seeing it for at least two or 
three days, being confident that it had gone off to Alexan- 
dria and perhaps to London, with our English friends who 
had left us at Zagazig to take the steamer. But, greatly to 
my surprise, about ten o'clock in the evening the Egyptians 
came marching into our room with the lost baggage on 
their heads, and it was like getting home to get into our 
trunks once more. 

They have strange chambermaids at Shepheard's. The 
one who waited on our room and attended to all the vari- 
ous duties of the calling, even to making of beds, was a 
courtly Frenchman, dressed as if for a dinner-party, and 
having the air of a refined and educated gentleman. It 
was really embarrassing to accept his services. One of the 
ladies, on arriving at the hotel, rang for the chambermaid. 
This gentleman presented himself. Supposing him to be 
the proprietor or chief clerk, she informed him that she had 
rung for the chambermaid. He very politely replied, in 
the best English he could command, " Madame, I am she." 



362 ABOUND THE WOULD. 



XXVIII. 

CAIRO TO JERUSALEM. 

My first expedition to Cairo, after recovering from the 
fatigues of onr long voyage and subsequent journeyings by 
land, was to tlie Citadel ; not so much to see the Citadel it- 
self or the Grand Mosqne, but for the panoramic view of 
the city and the valley of the Nile which it commands. 
This view alone would repay a traveler for coming to this 
far-off country, even if he should see nothing else. As you 
stand upon the parapet, the whole of Cairo, ancient and 
modern, lies at your feet. On the right are the tombs of 
the Caliphs and the Mamelukes. On the left is what re- 
mains of Old Cairo — called old by courtesy among the mon- 
uments of thirty or forty centuries. Beyond the city flows 
the j^ile, encircling several beautiful islands. Farther on, 
across the emerald valley, the Pyramids and the Sphinx sit 
in silent majesty. A few miles up the Nile is the site of 
ancient Memphis, now nearly obliterated. The hills on 
either side of the broad vallej^, rising up as walls to say to 
the overflowing stream, " Thus far shalt thou come, but no 
farther," are inhabited by a silent multitude, unnumbered 
millions, unknown and undecayed, who await the coming 
of the resurrection morn just as they were laid in their 
tombs thousands of years ago. In the midst of this scene 
the old Nile flows on and overflows, as it has from the time 
of the Pharaohs and from the time of the flood, if not from 
all time. As he gazes one can not help but peoj^le the val- 
ley with the generations that have come and gone, and fill 
it up with the grand events that have transpired, until he 
becomes bewildered with their variety and with the suc- 
cession. 



CAIRO TO JERUSALEM. 363 

Taking a carriage at the hotel, and crossing the Nile by 
the bridge of boats, we drove directly to the Pyramids, 
which are about ten miles west from the river. - The car- 
riage-road is an embankment of Nile mud from ten to fif- 
teen feet high, making it available during the overfiow 
and at all seasons of the year. It is shaded by large aca- 
cias, and the carriage-track is usually in excellent order. 
The viceroy has shown some sense in sparing a trifle from 
the vast sums which he is expending upon his numerous 
palaces for the construction and improvement of this road ; 
and whether the natives bless him for it or not (it must 
greatly interfere with the donkey business), all foreigners 
who have occasion to visit the Pyramids will give him 
their benedictions. He might immortalize himself by ef- 
fecting one reform — the abatement or abolition of the 
backshish nuisance. A horde of Arabs, nominally under 
the control of a sheikh, who is paid in advance for their 
services, stand ready to torment the money, if not the 
life, out of every new victim who falls into their hands. 
They give him no rest in making the ascent of the Pyra- 
mid, nor will they suffer him to enjoy, undisturbed, the 
magnificent prospect from the summit. And woe be to the 
luckless traveler who is persuaded to enter the chambers 
with money in his pocket, and without a large measure of 
courage and firmness. 

There is no greater abatement to the pleasure of journey- 
ing in the East than this never satisfied demand of money. 
It meets the traveler at every turn, like the flies of the an- 
cient plague, and comes up into his very bed-chamber, like 
the frogs, and there is no escaping it. Backshish is not 
asked as a matter of charity ; every one who renders the 
slightest service, or who only makes an offer of service, or 
who even looks at you, whether you wish him to look or 
not, feels that he has established a claim to your purse, and 
dogs your steps with incessant appeals which it is impossi- 
ble to thrust aside. The claim is made with such vehe- 
mence and pertinacity, that you are almost persuaded to 



364 



AROUND THE WORLD. 




THE PTEAMIDS. 



believe that in some way the miserable creatures who 
swarm around and follow you from place to place have 
become entitled to every thing you possess. If you could 
only purchase immunity by paying liberally there would 
be a satisfaction in doing it, but, like the flies in the fable, 
if you drive one swarm away, another at once takes its 
place. 

I will not tax the reader with a description of the Pyra- 
mids, with which every one is familiar ; nor of the Sphinx 
which sits a few hundred yards distant, looking out upon 
the valley of the Nile as it has looked for thousands of 
years, a strange monument to the strange ideas of the an- 
cient Egyptians. After a stroll to the ruins of the old 
temples — long covered by the sand, but now excavated — 
we returned to Cairo over the same road, and through the 
same green valley which, at this season of the year, ap- 
pears fresher and greener every time that the eye rests 
upon it. Nor shall I here record our excursions to Old 



CAIRO TO JERUSALEM. 



365 



Cairo ; or to the new palaces of the Khedive, on which he 
is expending millions of treasure, as if the wealth of the 
Indies were his ; or to the island of Rhoda, where we were 
told the infant Moses was found in the ark of bulrushes — 



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A 8TKEET IN CAIKO. 



366 AROUND THE WORLD. 

all these and other expeditions in the land of the Pharaohs 
must remain unrecorded for the present. 

Bright and beautiful was the morning when we left Cai- 
ro — but what morning is not bright in the East, the lands 
of the sunrising? With the exception of one shower, of 
which I have made mention, we had not seen a drop fall 
from the clouds, and scarcely a cloudy day or hour, for 
many months. It is not pleasant always to live under a 
glowing sun, but smiling skies are usually welcome to a 
traveler. 

Through the crowd of donkeys and donkey -boys, por- 
ters, and idlers, we made our way to and into the railway 
station, and into the cars bound for Alexandria, and were 
on our way toward the sea and toward other lands. Be- 
fore leaving Cairo we heard that some home friends were 
coming up that day, and, meeting the train at the half-way 
station, I shouted their names while the cars were coming 
to a halt. There came back a response, and for a few 
brief moments we enjoyed one of those delightful inter- 
views which can be had only thousands of miles away 
from home, after having been strangers in strange lands 
for many long months of travel. Our words of greeting 
and parting, our inquiries and replies, our items of infor- 
mation, which were confined to friends and matters of mu- 
tual interest, were brief and hurried, but into those few 
minutes we crowded an amount of pleasure that might be 
spread over many days of ordinary life. These stolen in- 
terviews in the wide desert — these snatches of home de- 
light, as one flits by another in a strange land, are not to 
be measured by moments. 

Our time in Alexandria we divided between the Cata- 
combs, and Pompey's Pillar, and Cleopatra's Needle, and 
ancient and modern Alexandria. No one who has ever 
lived in the Republic of Letters can come to this spot and 
not be harassed with the remembrance of that wealth of 
learning which was here committed to the flames. What a 
treasure would the Alexandrian Library be at the present 



CAIRO TO JERUSALEM. 367 

day ! If one such repository had escaped the ravages of 
war, and of barbarism, and of time, what a flood of light 
would it shed upon the dark past ! More than one million 
volumes are : oputed to have been gathered in the Library 
and Museum, the most of which were burned during the 
wars of Julius Csesar. The Library was subsequently re- 
stored and enlarged, but again the torch was applied by 
the Moslem conquerors. When importuned to save it, 
Omar coolly replied, " If these writings of the Greeks 
agree with the Book of God, they are useless, and need not 
be preserved ; if they disagree, they are pernicious, and 
ought to be destroyed." 

In what remains of ancient Alexandria there is nothing 
more interesting than the site of ancient Pharos, the first 
of those towers of light that now stud the shores of every 
sea, like guardian angels watching over the mariners. The 
light-house of Pharos is counted among the seven wonders 
of the world, and well does it deserve a place in the cata- 
alogue. It was a massive building of pure marble, erect- 
ed by the orders of Ptolemy Philadelphus, whose name 
was to be inscribed in the marble in front. The architect 
made himself infamous, but did not detract from the fame 
of his emperor, by a deceitful ruse. He engraved his owii 
name in the marble, covering it with stucco, on which he 
placed the following inscription : " King Ptolemy to the 
Saviour Gods for the use of those who travel by sea." 
When, in the course of time, the stucco fell, it revealed an- 
other more durable inscription : " Sostratus of Cnidos, the 
son of Dexiphanes, to the Saviour Gods for all who travel 
by sea." There is a light-house now standing on the same 
site. 

We were now bound as pilgrims for the Holy Land. 
Embarking at Alexandria on the French steamer, we were 
at Port Said, the Mediterranean entrance to the Suez Ca- 
nal, early the next morning. Should the canal be a per- 
manent success, this port will be an important station be- 
tween the East and the West. Its formation was one of 



368 AROUND THE WORLD. 

the most difficult parts of the great enterprise. The sea at 
this point being shallow, scarcely more than a mud flat, 
it was necessary to construct a harbor, and, at the same 
time, to excavate it to the proper depth. Two breakwaters 
were run out more than a mile into the sea, inclosing; a 
harbor. As there was no stone for their construction, the 
great projector supplied the deficiency by making conci-ete 
blocks of sand and cement, which look like blocks of gran- 
ite. A light-house, wharves, and other structures at Port 
Said have been built of the same material, and promise to 
endure the action alike of air and water for ages. 

We left Port Said at 5 o'clock P.M. Late at night I 
was sitting on deck, enjoying the swell of the sea in the 
open air in preference to the confinement of the cabin, and 
b}^ necessity became a listener to the conversation of two 
English gentlemen who sat near me. One said to the 
other, " What a host of Americans we have on board !" 
(The Americans comprised about two thirds of the passen- 
gers.) " Yes," replied his friend, " and it is the same wher- 
ever we go in the East. I should think they had room 
enough in their own country to wander in without coming 
over here in such crowds. Why ! they can travel eight 
days and eight nights in one train of cars without stopping, 
but they do not seem contented even with that." And they 
voted that it was an unauthorized proceeding for American 
sovereigns to invade that part of the world in such num- 
bers, evidently forgetting that they had stepped off from 
the little island of Great Britain without any better author- 
ity. It was gratifying to me to observe that they had be- 
come so familiar with the geography, or at least the extent 
of our country, which few have been able to comprehend. 

Several years since I met, in a social circle in London, a 
very intelligent English lady, who, in the coui'se of our con- 
versation, feeling called upon to make some remark in re- 
gard to the country from which I came, said to me, " I see 
by the papers that 3^ou have had a fire in America," appar- 
ently regarding our continent as a small village compared 



CAIRO TO JERUSALEM. 369 

with the immense extent of the British Isles. Having re- 
cently left New York, I felt bound to apologize for not hav- 
ing been at the fire, or, at least, for not knowing where it 
was, and replied that I did not know what one she referred 
to ; that we often burned a large part of our cities over to 
build them up in better style. (It was a year in which there 
had been extensive fires in Milwaukie, St. Louis, and San 
Francisco, and other "Western cities, some account of which 
had met her eye without making any particular impression.) 
To account for my ignorance, and to give her some idea 
of the extent of our country, I stated that not long before 
leaving New York I had taken a steamer in the interior of 
Pennsylvania and sailed a hundred miles down the Monon- 
gahela to Pittsburg, a thousand miles down the Ohio to the 
Mississippi, another thousand down the Mississippi to New 
Orleans, and that I was then a hundred and fifty miles from 
the mouth of the stream on which I had first embarked. 
This statement, although literally true, was such a tax upon 
her credulity that it suddenly stopped the conversation. 
She made no reply, evidently regarding me as another 
Baron Munchausen. But an English gentleman, who had 
traveled extensively in the United States, saw my unhappy 
position, and came to my relief. He said he had been on 
our Western rivers, and knew that what I said was true., A 
good understanding was restored, and all would have passed 
off well enough had not a young New Yorker present felt 
disposed to indulge in a bit of pleasantry and enlarge her 
ideas of American scenery. Noting her surprise, he said, 
"Madam, we have lakes in America so large that you might 
take up the whole of England and drop it into one of them, 
and it would not make a ripple on the shore." We were 
then all at sea again, and were both set down as incorrigi- 
ble illustrations of our national fondness for large stories. 

The United States of America are much better known 
to the world at large than they were but a few years since. 
Our late struggle for national life, affecting as it did, in one 
way and another, nearly every land, has made the nations 

Aa 



370 AJiOUWD TILE WOULD. 

better acquainted with our geography, our resources, and 
our strength, and never did the country or the nation stand 
higher in the estimation of the world than at the present 
time, if I may judge from the reception of Americans be- 
fore and since the war. Fifteen or twenty years ago, as I 
can testify from personal experience, Americans, in travel- 
ing abroad, were constantly and often rudely placed upon 
the defensive when their nationality became known, and 
they are not in the habit of concealing it. It was not safe, 
even by the wayside or in a railcar, to address an English- 
man on the most ordinary topic without an introduction, or 
unless he had first spoken ; and when the subject of our 
country came up, it was the next thing to a declaration of 
war. I have many interviews of this character in mem- 
ory. 

Our late war, in all its history and its results, developing 
the indomitable energy of the people, their invincible at- 
tachment to the government under which they have at- 
tained to their present state of prosperity, and their inde- 
pendence of all foreign alliances, has greatly elevated the 
country in the eyes of the world. With no other people is 
this change more apparent than with the children of what 
we are wont to call the mother country. I take pleasure 
in bearing the most cordial testimony to the friendly bear- 
ing of Englishmen in all parts of the world, and to their 
friendly interest in our land. Time and again, as I have 
been passing through Eastern countries, where the interests 
of England are predominant, has the expression of such 
feeling been made, and with it the acknowledgment that 
while our war was in progress the sympathy of the more 
intelligent and influential classes of Great Britain, at home 
and abroad, was against us. They have as frankly con- 
fessed the cause ; they thought we were becoming too pow- 
erful ; they wished to see our strength divided, and for this 
reason they desired the success of the rebellion. But they 
now see their error, and heartily express the regret that 
they held the views and took the course they did. Such is 



CAIRO TO JERUSALEM. 37]^ 

tlie logic of success. May this international amity, wliicli 
on both sides is now hearty, never again be interrupted ! 

It was evening when we left Port Said. When the 
morning came 1 rose early, and with no little anxiety look- 
ed out upon the sea. There is no harbor at Jaffa, and, as 
the anchorage is a mile from the shore, unless the sea is 
comparatively quiet, it is impossible to have any communi- 
cation with the land. In rough weather the steamer does 
not stop, so that passengers are frequently carried b}^, and 
those on shore who have come down fi-om Jerusalem to 
take the steamer are compelled to remain another week, 
and, perhaps, be doomed to a second disappointment fi'om 
the same cause. Happily for us, it was calm, and we reach- 
ed the shore without difficulty. 

Jaffa is bnilt upon a rocky hill directly on the sea, and 
the town rises so abruptly that it shows to good advantage. 
But if there be any beauty in its situation or appearance, 
the charm vanishes the moment one sets foot upon the 
shore and enters its dirty, winding streets, to be jostled by 
its miserable crowd of idle Arabs, camels, and donkeys. 
Our ex23erience in getting ourselves and our baggage to the 
hotel in the American colony on the outskirts of the town, 
attended by nearly a score of porters who demanded back- 
shish for all sorts of services, actual and imaginary, would 
make another amusing record, but there is not space for it. 
So many Americans were arriving that the people were in- 
dulging "great expectations," and nothing but j)rincely 
gifts would satisfy them. I tendered the leader of the 
band that escorted ns what was his due, but he indignantly 
rejected it, demanding five times as much, and, when I qui- 
etly pnt the money into my pocket, he and his whole crew 
lashed themselves into a towering passion in true Oriental 
style, and made all sorts of threatening demonstrations. 
Verily, it seemed as if the Philistines were upon us. In 
the course of an hour or two he expressed his willingness 
to accept what I offered, said he was satisfied, and added a 
" Thank you." 



372 AROUND THE WORLD. 

We tarried at this ancient harbor of Hiram and Solo- 
mon, and of Jonah's embarkation for Tarshish, only long- 
enough to make an-angements for the journey to Jerusa- 
lem. A new road had been recently built, well graded, 
and affording a carriage-track twenty-five or thirty feet in 
width the whole distance ; but the carriages were wanting, 
and we must needs take the saddle. The distance from 
Jaffa to Jerusalem is only thirty-six miles, but very few not 
inured to the saddle can accomplish it in a single day, while 
it is often done in eight or ten hours by those who have 
been hardened to the exercise, and sometimes in less. 

It was afternoon on Saturday when we were prepared 
for a start. We had sent forward to engage rooms at the 
Kussian convent at Ramleh, a few hours distant, where we 
were to spend the Sabbath — a far more quiet and desirable 
resting-place than the miserable city of Simon the Tanner. 
We rode out of Jaffa through the orange-groves that sur- 
round the city. The trees were still loaded with the gold- 
en fruit, and more magnificent specimens I have never seen. 
One gentleman whom I met cut a twig having on it six or- 
anges which together weighed between seven and eight 
pounds, and another had two oranges that weighed five 
pounds. 

Our course was over the beautiful plains of Sharon, then 
covered with wheat-fields in the early green, and decked 
with a profusion of wild flowers, and the ride was one of 
indescribable interest. We were traversing the plain which 
for thousands of years had been memorable in history and 
storied in song ; the plain which had been trod by prophets 
and apostles ; the plain w^hich, time and again, in ancient 
and in latter days, had shook to the tramp of marching 
hosts. The classic sea was behind us ; before us rose the 
hills of Judea ; on our right,- as far as the eye could reach 
toward Phihstia, stretched the plains of Ajalon. 

The gorgeous sun of Palestine had gone down in glory 
behind the sea before we reached our stopping-place, and, 
but for the gathering shadows, we would gladly have lin- 



CAIRO TO JERUSALEM. ^^j^ 

gered longer on the plains to read upon them, and npon the 
skies of Judea, the long and sacred history of the past. We 
followed our dragoman through the winding streets of Eam- 
leli, and were soon resting in our quarters on the house-top 
of the Eussian convent. The lower and only story of the 
convent was appropriated to our horses and the pack-mules, 
while we ascended to the roof, a broad pavement, around 
which were rows of small rooms ready for our reception. 
Here we spent our first Sabbath in Palestine. The stillness 
of the wide plains surrounded us, scarcely broken by day 
or by night save by the muezzin's mu-sical voice from the 
minaret adjoining, sounding forth the call to prayer. More 
than once were we roused from our slumbers by the solemn 
chant, 

"Allah ekber ! Allah ekber ! 
Eshedon en la Allah ilia Allah !" 

This is repeated seven times by day, and as often by night. 
The following is a translation of the usual form, varied 
only on Friday, the Mohammedan Sabbath : 

"God is great ! God is great ! 
I testify that there is no god but God. 
I testify that Mohammed is the Prophet of God. 
Come to peace ! Come to happiness ! 
God is great ! There is no god but God ! " 

On the Sabbath we gathered from their tents, and from 
the Latin convent, all the Americans whom we could find, 
and had our usual services on the house-top. It was liter- 
ally a sacred day, and one to be consecrated in memory. 
We could enter into the feehngs of the patriarch when, far 
away from home, he fell asleep by the wayside, and awoke 
to say, " Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not. 
This is none other but the house of God, and this is the 
gate of heaven." 

We rose at two o'clock on Monday morning to resume 
our journey beneath a brilliant sky. The stars were out in 
hosts — the same stars which shone upon the land of Canaan 
when Abraham first passed through it — the same stars 
w^hich were shining when One, the brightest of all, was add- 



374 ABOUND THE WORLD. 

ed to their number. The moon was shedding its peaceful 
light upon the plains as we struck out again upon the track 
Zionward. Soft as is the evening moonlight, and suggest- 
ive of sweet and sacred thoughts, the moonlight of the 
morning is softer and more sacred. Entering, as we were, 
upon the Holy Land, and traversing the beautiful plains of 
Sharon up toward the Holy City, an awe of solemnity stole 
over us, and almost in silence we rode onward, hour after 
hour, until the east, toward which our faces were turned, 
became luminous with the advancing day. 

And now the path became more rugged. We were as- 
cending the mountains which are round about Jerusalem, 
and which guard it like the walls of a citadel. We paused 
but a short time to break our fast, and were again in the 
saddle pressing on to stand within the gates of Zion. More 
than once, as we reached an eminence, expecting to see from 
it the city which was once "the joy of the whole earth," 
were we disappointed ; it was still beyond. At length our 
eyes beheld the sight. As we reached the last height, the 
whole familiar scene, with all its hallowed memories, was 
before us. We needed no one to point out the various lo- 
calities. It was a scene on which we had been looking 
from childhood. We needed no one to say to us. That is 
the Holy City ; there, to the right, is Mount Zion, the city 
of David ; there, to the left, where rises the dome of tlie 
Mosque of Omar, is the site of the ancient temple ; the 
height beyond, now looking so barren and desolate, is the 
Mount of Olives — the favorite resort of Him who came 
from heaven to sojourn upon earth, and the spot last press- 
ed by his sacred feet ere he ascended to his native skies. 
The memories of the sacred scenes which made the places 
so familiar even to our eyes came thronging upon our 
hearts, until we could scarcely collect our thoughts enough 
to imagine in what age of this old world we were ap- 
proaching the Holy City, or whether it had any age other 
than that in which the most important events in its history 
transpired. 



THE HOL Y CITY. 375 

And this is Jerusalem ! the mount where Abraham bomid 
Isaac in the wilderness, and laid him on the altar ! the city 
of David and Solomon ! the spot which God selected for 
the display of his glory in the Holy of Holies ! the place 
where he was long manifest in the flesh — where Jesus lived 
and taught ! the city in which he was arrested and tried as 
a malefactor ! This is the spot where he was stretched 
upon the cross, and where he cried " It is finished," and 
bowed his head and died ! 

Slowly and silently we w^ound our way down the hill- 
side, past the Kussian hospice, along the ancient wall to the 
Damascus Gate, passing through a strange crowd of frown- 
ing Mussulmans to the Mediterranean Hotel, and then we 
rested in Salem, the City of Peace. " Pray for the peace 
of Jerusalem : they shall prosper that love thee. Peace be 
within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces. For 
my brethren and my companions' sakes, I will now say, 
Peace be within thee." 



XXIX. 

THE HOLY CITY. 

In the Hotel MediteiTanean (it sounds almost profane to 
speak of a hotel in Jerusalem) we found more of comfort 
than one could expect, and, until another day had come, 
were not disposed to leave it to explore the city. But 
with the morning we went forth to trace the scenes which, 
eighteen hundred years ago, made this mountain so mem- 
orable in the history of our world and in the records of 
time. With little faith in the traditions that have mapped 
out the holy places in the sacred city, I determined to 
give myself up to the spirit of the scene, and, first of all, to 
follow, in imagination at least, the path the Saviour trod 
when he was led as a lamb to the slaughter. According- 



376 



AROUND THE WORLD. 



ly, I told the guide to take us first to tlie house of Pilate. 
The one now bearing this name occupies the same general 
locality as that of the Roman governor, but there is noth- 
ing to establish the identity, and as little to assist one in 
recalling the scene of the judgment-hall. Following the 
Via Dolorosa, we come to the Chapel of the Flagellation, 




VIA DOLOROSA. 



and then to the Arch of the Ecce Homo, said to cover the 
spot were Jesus came forth wearing the crown of thorns 



THE HOLY CITY. 



377 



and tlie purple robe, when Pilate exclaimed to the people, 
" Behold the man ;" and then we followed, as near as we 
could, that strange procession which led the holy victim on 
toward Calvary. Here we are told the Saviour of the world 
sank under the burden of his cross, when Simon the Cyre- 
nean was compelled to take it up and bear it after him ; 
here we pass what are called the houses of Dives and Laz- 
arus, and presently reach the spot where we are informed 
Veronica appeared with a napkin to wipe the sweat from 
the sacred brow, when the portrait of the Saviour was mi- 
raculously impressed upon it. The pretended relic is pre- 
served as one of the chief treasures of the Basilica of St. 
Peter at Rome. 

Making a slight ascent through a narrow street, we come 
at length to the open square in front of the Church of the 
Holy Sepulchre, a sort of bazar for the sale of relics, and a 




CUUECU OF TUB UOLY SEPULCHEE. 



378 ~ ABOUND THE WORLD. 

place of gathering for all sorts of pilgrims. The door of 
the church is closed. The time for the opening has come 
and passed, but the Turkish officials who have it in charge 
delay, and still longer delay, hoping that a party of stran- 
gers, not having the look of ordinary pilgrims, will tender 
backshish. At length we are admitted. 

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre might more appro- 
priately be called the Church of all the Holy Places. Tra- 
dition has so conveniently located many of them within a 
few yards of each other that they are all inclosed under 
one roof. Near the door is the " Stone of Unction," a 
marble slab, on which the body of our Lord is said to have 
been anointed for the burial. The dome of the building 
covers the Holy Sepulchre, which stands in the centre of 
the area — not a tomb " hewn out in the rock," according to 
the Scripture narrative, but a marble structure about six 
feet square, and the same in height, apparently built on 
the pavement. It is asserted that the surrounding rock has 
been removed, and that what remained was incased in mar- 
ble, accounting for its present appearance. The whole 
structure is above the floor of the church, and bears no 
sign of attachment to the original rock. The coincidence 
of " stooping down" to enter or look within the sepulchre, 
as did Peter on the morning of the resurrection, is pre- 
served by a low doorway through which we enter. About 
one third of the width of the interior is occupied by a mar- 
ble slab representing the stone on which the body of Jesus 
was laid. It is fitted up as an altar, and on and above it 
are costly gifts, set thick with precious stones, presented by 
different sovereigns of Europe. A Greek priest was stand- 
ing at the head when we first stepped within. He court- 
eously gave us the names of the royal donors of the gifts 
recently made, and handed us from the altar some of the 
fragrant flowers that are daily placed there in profusion. 
The priests of the different sects in turn stand guard in the 
tomb, a necessary precaution with such a crowd of pil- 
grims and strangers. Free access to the holy places was 



THE HOLY CITY. 3^9 

allowed to all, nor was there any disorder or confusion in 
the crowd of visitors which thronged the church all day 
long. 

A flight of steps leads to an upper chapel, wdiich is said 
to cover the Hill of Calvary, and a round hole in the rock 
is pointed out as that in which stood the cross while the 
Redeemer hung upon it. A cleft in the rock, which is 
shown, is said to have been made when Jesus yielded up 
the ghost, "and the earth did quake and the rocks were 
rent." All the localities, even to the places where Mary, 
the mother of Jesus, stood wdiile his body was prepared 
for the burial, and where Christ appeared to Mary Magda- 
lene on the morning of the resurrection, are pointed out 
with the same precision. 

Descending a long stone stairway, we were taken to the 
Chapel of St. Helena, and then to a still lower recess, ap- 
propriately called, in English, " the Chapel of the Invention 
of the Cross." I can have no faith in the miracle said to 
have attended the finding of the three crosses in perfect 
preservation three hundred years after the crucifixion. It 
is without satisfactory proof ; the links in the chain of evi- 
dence are altogether too wide apart ; and I can see no oc- 
casion for the miracle. Even the pretence has been used 
the world over to encourage a superstitious worship of the 
supposed relic instead of faith in the victim that hung upon 
the cross. I am equally incredulous in regard to the iden- 
tity of most of the holy places. Without professing any 
accurate knowledge of the topography of Jerusalem, I have 
familiarized myself with the arguments of those who have 
endeavored to establish their verity, but it seems to me only 
fancy or superstition can be satisfied with the evidence. 

On my first visit to the Latin Chapel connected with the 
Holy Sepulchre, the priests and monks had just commenced 
the vesper service preparatory to visiting the stations here 
grouped together. As I entered, a Capucin monk, whom I 
afterward found to be a jolly Irishman on a pilgrimage to 
the Holy City, handed me a Latin Breviary, and I joined 



380 AROUND THE WOULD. 

the procession in the entire circuit, reading with tliem the 
description, of the scenes connected with the death and 
burial of the Eedeemer. The chants from the Latin Ynl- 
gate were well rendered, and Avould have been impressive 
even in other circumstances. At the close of the service, 
Father Antonio (he gave me his name as soon as it was 
concluded) conducted us through the chapels in possession 
of the Latins, showing us the relics which had been left in 
Jerusalem by the Knights of St. John, and treating us with 
great courtesy. I must confess I thought him rather pro- 
fane in his bearing, for he spoke with a levity of the place 
which was far from being consonant with my feelings, even 
though 1 could not satisfy myself that I was, without doubt, 
upon the scene of the great events associated with the re- 
puted holy places. 

It is not a pleasant thought, even to those who have no 
superstitious reverence for any of the localities of the Holy 
City, that these places are in the keeping of the followers 
of the false prophet ; and it is still more painful to con- 
template the scenes of strife, amounting not unfrequently 
to bloodshed, that have occurred upon this sacred, if not 
holy ground. I^owhere else is the hostility between Latin 
and Greek Christians more intense or more ready to break 
out than on the very spot where, as they profess to believe, 
the Prince of Peace shed his blood for their redemption, 
and where his body was laid in the grave. 

From the Holy Sepulchre we went to Mount Zion, the 
City of David, which is partially reclaimed from Moham- 
medan defilement, and from Oriental and Roman supersti- 
tion, by the establishment of a Christian mission under 
Bishop Gobat, who has had much encouragement in seek- 
ing out the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Sad and mis- 
erable is the condition of the Jews in this city of their fa- 
thers, as it is in most parts of the world. Their quarter in 
Jerusalem, as in nearly every Oriental and European city, 
is the most wretched and filthy of all, and they seem here, 
as every where, to be suffering the curse which their fathers 



THE HOLT CITY. 381 

invoked upon themselves and their descendants when they 
cried, " His blood be on ns and on our children." They still 
cling to the curse, even though they meet once a week to 
weep over the desolation of the Temple and the city. And 
even this is with most of them a mere formality. At the 
appointed hour I went out to the Wailing Place. More 
than a hundred Jews were assembled, but not more than 
one in ten appeared to enter into the spirit of the service. 
The rest were looking around upon the crowd as uncon- 
cerned, many of them more unconcerned, than the Gentiles 
who came merely to see the Jews. Even the Kabbi who 
read the penitential and mourning psalms, and those who 
joined him in weeping over the stones of the Temple, man- 
ifested no real grief. 

"As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the 
Lord is round about his people from henceforth even for- 
ever." The city itself is set upon a hill, surrounded, except- 
ing at one point, by deep valleys, while far above its high- 
est elevation, to the north and to the south, to the east and 
to the west, rises the circle of mountains, hemming it in and 
guarding it on every side. In looking down upon Jerusa- 
lem thus peculiarly situated, I was often reminded of a 
precious jewel deeply set in gold to protect it against all 
injury and loss, and of the more wonderful setting of the 
human eye. Of the mountains that are round about Jeru- 
salem, there is only one from which to view the city to ad- 
vantage, the one most fraught with sacred memories. The 
second day after our arrival we crossed the brook Kedron 
and ascended the Mount of Olives, the nearest point of 
earth to heaven, if we may make such a comparison, be- 
cause from this the Son of God ascended to the skies, lead- 
ing the way for those who are to rise and \i\e with him. 

Before passing out of the walls we turned aside to visit 
the Mosque of Omar, on the site of the Temple of Solomon. 
The mosque itself, and the extensive grounds in the midst 
of which it stands, in years past were guarded with jealous 
care by the Mohammedans, and it was with great difficulty 



382 AROUND THE WORLD. 

that Christians could gain admittance; but of late there 
has been little hinderance or objection. Arrangements hav- 
ing been made beforehand, we presented ourselves at the 
outer gate, and, provided with slippers for the more sacred 
parts of the inclosure, were conducted by a Mohammedan 
guide through the whole area, into the mosque and even 
beneath it, to the Cave of Rock, which we were allowed to 
examine thoroughly. This is one of the ancient places 
about which there can be no reasonable doubt. Here, 
within this square, once rose that magnificent building, the 
grandest and most glorious on which the sun ever shone ; 
here it was that Jehovah came down and dwelt among men 
in the visible glory of the Shekinah, long before the Son of 
God dwelt on earth in the likeness of mortal man. Here 
the gorgeous Temple service was instituted and celebrated 
for centuries, until sacrifices and ceremonies were abolished 
by the offering up of the one great sacrifice, the Lamb of 
God. It was refreshing to meditate in. the deej) stillness 
of this sacred spot, where no idling intruders are permitted 
to enter, as in so many places, to destroy the sacredness of 
the scene. 

Leaving the Mosque of Omar and the courts of the an- 
cient temple, after visiting " the gate that is called Beauti- 
ful," we passed out of the city walls by St. Stephen's Gate, 
so named because the martyr Stephen was stoned just out- 
side the gate._ Descending the steep side of the mountain, 
we came to the bed of the Kedron, at the bottom of the 
Yalley of Jehoshaphat. It was simply the hed for a stream, 
not a drop of water moistening its stones. In the rainy 
season a torrent sweeps through its entire length. Just as 
we commence the ascent of the Mount of Olives, we come 
upon what is called the Garden of Gethsemane, a square 
plot of ground, perhaps half an acre, surrounded by a high 
stone wall, and containing a few aged olive-trees, with 
plants and shrubs. The wall is confessedly modern, nor is 
there any conclusive evidence that the spot was the scene 
of the Saviour's agony and of his betrayal, while to my mind 



THE HOLY CITY. 



.383 




THB BEAUTIFUL GATE. 



the probabilities are all against it. There is nothing that 
marks it as a place for retirement. It was doubtless, then 
as now, on the frequented road from the city to the Mount 
of Olives, and a public place. The vague tradition connect- 
ed with the spot is not enough to mark it as that to which 
Jesus retired for secret prayer, and in which he endured 
the mysterious agony when one of the heavenly host ap- 
peared to strengthen him, as his disciples, overcome with 
fatigue and sleep, left him to suffer alone. The inclosure 
belongs to the Latins, or Roman Catholics ; but the Greeks, 
not to be outdone, have a garden near by which they as- 
sert is the real Gethsemane, thus bringing their rival claims 
into a sort of contempt. 

And now we climb the Mount of Olives, in all probabil- 
ity by the very path so often trod by holy feet — the feet 
which last pressed the earth upon the summit of this mount. 



384 



AROUND THE WOULD. 





^r- ■t^-'^^'- ■■ 



.-^F°^E^ r" ?■ jieUh t f. ■ I ffTif ■■■■■■ ' * - • * 




JERUSALEM AND GETUSEMANE. 



There is no other of all the sacred places in or near Jernsa • 
lem that may be visited with more confidence in its being 
the scene of events associated with the Saviour's life. I care 
not to know whether this precise rood of earth on which I 
am standing was the one on which Jesns stood when he 
spake the words of the Sermon on the Mount, or whether 



THE HOLY CITY. 335 

from this very spot lie beheld the city and wept over it, 
saying, " If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this 
thy day, the things which belong to thy peace," or whether 
on this precise spot he was talking with his disciples when 
" he was taken up and a cloud received him out of their 
sight." It is enough to know that the mountain on which 
I am standing was the scene of these great events, and 
that I am brought so closely into communication with the 
past, with the days of his flesh, and so near to that heaven- 
ly world in which I hope to see that form that was carried 
up in a cloud arid hid from mortal sight. Indeed, it is a 
decided relief to my feelings, I might say an aid to my 
faith, it certainly with me is conducive to sacred recollec- 
tions and pious emotion, that there is no one near to say 
that precisely here these words of Christ were spoken, or 
that this identical spot was last touched by his sacred feet. 
I can commune with the past far better without than with 
such meretricious helps. I found it very pleasant again 
and again to visit this holy mount, to linger around it, and 
from its summit to look down upon the Holy City, and 
backward into the past, and upward into the skies, as if 
through the opening made by the form of the ascending 
Redeemer. 

The summit of Olivet being 300 feet above the Temple 
area, one looks directly down upon the city which is spread 
out before him like a map. Every building and every lo- 
cality can be distinguished. Looking eastward, the Valley 
of the Jordan and the Dead Sea, although nearly twenty 
miles distant, and about 4000 feet lower, are seen so dis- 
tinctly that one can hardly believe they are so far off. 
The surface of the Dead Sea is the lowest point on the face 
of the globe, being 1312 feet below the Mediterranean and 
the ocean, and to look into it from the Mount of Olives is 
like looking down into the depths of the earth itself. 

I was greatly interested in tracing out the path that King 
David took when he fled from the treachery of Absalom. 
" And David went up by the ascent of Mount Olivet, and 

B B 



386 AROUND THE WORLD. 

wept as he went up, and had his head covered, and he went 
barefoot ; and all the people that was with him covered 
every man his head, and they went up, weeping as they 
went up." Nothing in the record of the reverses which 
kings have suffered could be more touching. The scene 
was constantly recurring to my mind as I went up the 
mountain from time to time, and I almost expected to 
meet Shimei as I passed over its summit. The Mohammed- 
ans were there with their curses, if he was not. 

One day, as we came from the Mount of Olives, we fol- 
lowed the valley of the brook Kedron, past the tomb of 
Absalom, to the Pool of Siloam, a rapid fall of between 
300 and 400 feet within a mile and a half ; thence up the 
Valley of Hinnom, past the Jaffa Gate to the Damascus 
Gate, where we entered as on our first approach to the city. 
The same afternoon we rode out to Bethlehem, six miles 
due south from Jerusalem. After passing through the 
deep Valley of Hinnom, the road over the j^lain is the fin- 
est in the vicinity of the Holy City. We were in siglit of 
several ancient villages mentioned in Scripture, that were 
lying off upon the neighboring hills. The Convent of Mar 
Elias, said to be erected on the spot where the prophet was 
ministered to by angels, and the tomb of Rachel, one of 
the few well-authenticated places in the Holy Land, were 
directly upon the road-side. And then we came to that 
spot, the grand illumination of the book of time, on which 
the Son of God appeared in the likeness of man. I looked 
out upon the hill-sides for the shepherds, and listened for 
the voice, " Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, 
which shall be to all people ; for unto you is born this day, 
in the city of David, a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord," 
and the chorus of the heavenly liost, " Glory to God in the 
highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." 

We entered the town of Bethlehem, where once the Lord 
of Glory entered our world in the lowly form of ^ little 
babe. We rode through the streets to the Church of the 
jS^ativity, and instead of meeting with the shepherds who 



THE HOLT CITY. 3g7 

said,'" Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this 
thing which is come to pass," or the wise men who came 
to pour out their treasures at the feet of the infant Jesus, 
we were surrounded by a swarm of imperious mendicants 
and traffickers in relics, who seemed determined to shut 
out all sacred thoughts of the place. The star that once 
"stood over where the young child was" had long since 
set, though shining briglitly on so many other lands. May 
it soon arise again in all its glory on Bethlehem and all 
Judea ! 

Among the saddest of all the scenes connected with my 
pilgrimage to the Holy Land was a visit to Bethany, the 
one spot with which are associated many of the tenderest, 
sweetest memories of the life of our Lord, and more of our 
knowledge of his real humanity, his actual sympathy and 
friendship, than with all other places. Who has not, in 
reading the words, " Now Jesus loved Martha and her sis- 
ter, and Lazarus," and of his resorting to Bethany to enjoy 
their society ; and of the message the sisters sent him when 
Lazarus was sick, and his going to weep with them when 
Lazarus was dead ; who, in reading all this in the G-ospels, 
has not pictured to himself a rural village where he him- 
self would love to stand, if not to dwell ? But how changed 
is the present reality from the scene of his imaginings ! 

It is about two miles from Jerusalem. We left the city 
by St. Stephen's Gate, descending into the Yalley of Je- 
hoshaphat, passed Gethsemane, and took the path around 
the south side of the Mount of Olives, the very road by 
which, without doubt, the Saviour made his triumphal en- 
try into Jerusalem, when " a very great multitude spread 
their garments in the way ; others cut down branches from 
the trees and strewed them in the way ; and the multi- 
tudes that went before and that followed cried, saying, 
Hosanna to the Son of David ; blessed is he that cometh 
in the name of the Lord ; hosanna in the highest." The 
scene, as it lay before us, was one of mere desolation. Ut- 
ter sterility, without verdure or foliage save an occasional 



388 AROUND THE WORLD. 

olive-tree, marked the whole way to Bethany. The path 
and the fields were heaps of stone, and the town of Mary 
and Martha, a miserable cluster of cheerless huts, with a 
more miserable crowd of children and grown people de- 
manding charity, had not the first attractive feature. We 
looked into the reputed grave of Lazarus, and turned away 
in sadness at the desolation every where presented. And 
this is but a type of a great part of Palestine at the pres- 
ent day. 

In these rapid sketches of travel over so large a part of 
the surface of the globe, it will be impossible to give even 
a continuous account of all our wanderings. I must omit 
the record of our excursion to the Yalley of the Jordan 
and the Dead Sea, where we were attacked by the Bedou- 
ins in the dead of night, as we were encamped on the 
plains of Jericho. We escaped without injury or loss, but 
a party of our friends, who went down to Jericho soon aft- 
er, fell among thieves, who stripped them of their raiment, 
robbed them of all they had, and threatened their lives. 

The last day that we spent in Jerusalem was the day of 
rest. In the morning I attended the English service on 
Mount Zion, and heard an excellent sermon from the ven- 
erable Bishop Gobat. In the afternoon we had religious 
services of a social character at our hotel, attended by 
about twenty-five, chiefly Americans. Our landlord kind- 
ly prepared the dining-i"oom for the services, and in this 
" large upper room, made ready," we joined in pra3^er and 
praise, and talked of the scenes which transpired in that 
Holy City nearly 2000 years ago — scenes in which the 
world has the same deep interest to-day as when they were 
transpiring on these holy mountains ; which will never lose 
their interest while the world shall stand, and which will 
only have gathered fresh interest when the world shall pass 
away. 



TO DAMASCUS AND CONSTANTINOPLE. 339 



XXX. 

TO DAMASCUS AND CONSTANTINOPLE. 

The morning came on which we were to take our de- 
parture, and I can not say that I regretted to look for the 
last time upon the city, filled though it is with holy memo- 
ries. I never had an intense desire to enter the earthly 
Canaan, although it had long been one of the unsettled 
purposes of my life to do so. Knowing its forlorn, desolate 
state, so different from wiiat it must have been when Abra- 
ham dwelt at Mamre, or when David and Solomon reigned 
at Jerusalem, or when a greater than patriarchs and kings 
sojourned in the land ; knowing how completely the traces 
of their footsteps had been obliterated, and the sacred scenes 
connected with their lives changed and desecrated, I could 
scarcely tell whether I desired most to gratify a common 
wish, or to cherish in my heart memories of the land de- 
rived from reading the Word of God. But, journeying 
homeward from more eastern climes, I could not pass by 
the land with which is linked all the most sacred history of 
the past, and with which are associated all the holiest an- 
ticipations of the future. I entered it ; I traveled and tar- 
ried in it, and I turned away from it with a feeling of sad- 
ness, but with no regret. 

I presume that every traveler experiences a measure of 
disappointment on entering Palestine, especially in visiting 
Jerusalem. He comes with all the sacred emotions that 
were excited in childhood, strengthened and deepened with 
his growth, now raised to their utmost by the very sight of 
the land. He does not expect to find it, as in days long 
ago, flowing with milk and honey, or to see Jerusalem as it 
was before the glory had departed ; but few are prepared 



390 AROUND THE WORLD. 

to see it so waste and desolate. While in Jerusalem, I 
found myself continually repeating the words of the la- 
menting prophet : " Is this the city that men call the per- 
fection "of beauty, the joy of the whole earth ?" The frown 
of God is every where resting on the land ; it may be read 
not only in the desolation of the Temple and of the Holy 
City, but in the dust of the earth and the stones of the field. 
The land lieth waste and mourneth, and no Christian trav- 
eler can fail to weep over it. It seems as if God had been 
sweeping it with the besom of destruction, obliterating the 
traces and attractions of its sacred scenes for the very pur- 
pose of preventing the idolatrous reverence for holy places 
which is even now carried to such an extent, and to impress 
upon the world the words of Jesus to the woman of Sama- 
ria : " Woman, believe me, the hour cometh when ye shall 
neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the 
Father. God is a Spirit, and they that worship him must 
worship him in spirit and in truth." 

Early on Monday morning, our horses saddled and our 
baggage packed, we waited for the guard. From day to 
day, after our return from the Yalley of the Jordan, we had 
accounts of fresh robberies and attacks upon travelers on 
the road to Jaffa. One poor Jew had been robbed and 
nearly murdered, and others had suffered in like manner. 
Through the American consul, Mr. Hay, I had made an ap- 
plication to the governor at Jerusalem for a guard, unless 
he would be responsible for our safe passage. He sent us 
word that we must have a military escort, which he pro- 
posed to send on his own account. After eveiy thing was 
in readiness for the journey, we waited an hour, and began 
to grow impatient, when at length a cavass made his ap- 
pearance with a message from the governor that we could 
go without the guard, and he would be responsible for any 
loss or damage that we might sustain. We could do noth- 
ing more, and accordingly we passed out the Damascus 
Gate, ascended the height, turned to take a last look of the 
city and of the mountains that are round about Jerusalem, 



TO DAMASCUS AND CONSTANTINOPLE. 39^ 

and began the descent toward the Mediterranean. As the 
sun was setting we re-entered Ramleh, where we spent an- 
other night within sound of the muezzin's voice. With 
the break of day we rose to cross again the plains of Sha- 
ron, and early in the morning rode into Jaffa. The French 
steamer Tage was at anchor off the town ; the sea was calm, 
i-elieving us of the apprehension that we might be com- 
pelled to lie over for many days (as were a party who came 
down the week before), and without any delay, and under 
the most pleasing promise of a smooth passage, we were 
taken on board. 

About midnight we passed Mount Carmel, the scene of 
that subhme trial between the Prophet Elijah and the 
prophets of Baal, and early on the following morning were 
off Beyrout, the most homelike and the most beautiful city 
on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean. Indeed, it was 
a home to one who had been at my side in all my journey- 
ings, for here, at the foot of old Lebanon, 

" On that classical sea whose azure vies 
With the green of its shores and the blue of its skies," 

she first looked out upon this little world which we had 
been surrounding, and now, for the first time since early 
childhood, she was returning to gaze once more upon these 
sublime mountains, and to look out from their heights upon 
this cerulean sea. I had no such memories to revive, but, 
from my first view of Beyrout, I wrote it down as just the 
place one might choose to be born in, if he should happen 
to have any choice in the matter. During the many days 
that w^e spent at this place, I was more and more charmed 
with its beauty, and never grew weary of looking out upon 
the blue sea and up the grand heights of Lebanon, or of 
watching the constantly shifting lights and shades. And 
when, as once, the brow of Lebanon grew dark and then 
angry with gathering clouds, and peals of thunder came 
rolling down its sides and echoing through its chasms, the 
scene became sublime, 

No city in the East has been more changed within the 



TO BA MASCUS AND CONSTANTINOPLE. 393 

last half century than Beyroiit. Fifty years ago it was a 
small town — a collection of mud and stone houses, sur- 
rounded by a wall, but having nothing imposing or attract- 
ive in its appearance. It is now a large, w^ell-built city, a 
place of great and growing importance, having long ago 
burst through its mural inclosure. It has become also a 
moral centre for a large part of the East — the seat of ex- 
tensive missionary operations, which extend over the moun-- 
tains of Lebanon and far into the interior. When the first 
missionaries from America, Messrs. Goodell and Bird, with 
their wives, landed in 1823, they became first objects of cu- 
riosity, then of bitter hostility, and for a long time their 
lives were in danger. On the breaking out of the Greek 
Revolution they were obliged to leave the country for want 
of protection, but they were succeeded in after years by one 
of the noblest bands of Christian laborers that has occupied 
any part of the great field of the world, among whom were 
Dr. Eli Smith, the companion of Dr. Robinson in his bio- 
graphical researches in the Holy Land ; Dr. Thomson, au- 
thor of " The Land and the Book ;" Dr. Van Dyck, the em- 
inent Arabic scholar ; Dr. Calhoun, now of Abeih ; Dr. 
Bliss, President of the Arabic College, and others — a gal- 
axy of shining names. 

Among the tribes inhabiting the mountains around Bey- 
rout, the most peculiar and interesting are the Druses. They 
are a fine, noble-looking race, generally intelligent, and 
able to read and write. Their sacred rites are performed 
in strict seclusion, as secretly as the rites of Freemasonry. 
Among their articles of belief is the transmigration of 
souls, not into bodies of the lower animals, as some Oriental 
nations believe, but into those of other human beings. They 
hold that the number of the race, or at least of human souls, 
does not increase with the addition of new members to the 
human family ; that when a man dies, his soul goes into 
the body of some infant who is born at the same time, and 
that the souls of all good Druses enter bodies born in China. 
On this belief is founded a tradition that there is in China 



394 ABOUND THE WORLD. 

an immense army of Druses, 25,000,000 strong, who are 
coming over to Syria, not only to liberate them from the 
Turkish yoke, but to put them in possession of this whole 
country, if not of the whole earth. In a visit which I made 
to one of the mountain villages, the Druses of the place 
learned that I had recently come from China, and I was 
waited on by one and another, among them a sheikh, who 
came to make a host of inquiries in regard to what I had 
seen of the country, which is to them, as it was not to me, 
a paradise. But the point to which I found they were de- 
sirous to come, and which they finally brought out, was 
whether 1 had seen any of this grand army of liberation. 
I assured them that, although I had been in different parts 
of the empire, I had not seen or heard of a single Druse 
in all China, and that I was quite sure 1 should have heard 
something about it if such an army existed there. My 
words sadly disappointed them, but it was evident they did 
not carry conviction to their minds. They fell back upon 
the firm belief that the army was yet to come from that 
distant country. 

After the fearful massacre of 1860, in which many of the 
villages of Mount Lebanon were desolated, the French gov- 
ernment sent into Syria an army of occupation, or protec- 
tion to the Christians, which was withdrawn in a few years, 
but the army left behind it one monument for which thou- 
sands of travelers have blessed its memory. This is the 
splendid road across the mountains to Damascus. Such a 
road was a novelty in the East ; the natives regarded it as 
a desecration of sacred soil, and an outrage upon the rights 
of donkeys and muleteers ; but it has been a blessing to 
wayfarers, and has greatly facilitated traffic, not to say com- 
merce, between these two cities. 

The grandeur of the mountains of Lebanon exceeded all 
my anticipations. Not even after watching them from the 
sea, and then, day after day, from the city of Beyrout, was 
I prepared for such sublimity. They attain, indeed, no 
mean height, being 10,000 feet above the level of the Med- 



DAMASCUS TO CONSTANTINOPLE. 395 

iterranean ; and, as if scorning to turn aside for any obsta- 
cle, this road mounts some of the loftiest ridges, and for 
miles runs along the brow of chasms two or three thousand 
feet deep. It was not at all in accordance with the ancient 
ideas of Oriental travel to be making the passage of these 
lofty mountains in a well-ordered French diligence ; but 
this mode had been chosen out of regard to the more deli- 
cate members of our party, and those of us who were en- 
dowed with more strength were nothing loth to exchange 
the saddle for a comfortable seat in an Occidental carriage. 
Nor did we enjoy the magnificent scenery any less for the 
change. 

We were to start for Damascus at four o'clock in the 
morning, nearly two hours before daylight. As the dili- 
gence would not come to our hotel, Mohammed like we 
concluded to go to the diligence. On retiring, we had given 
special and repeated charge to landlord and porter to call 
us by two o'clock, that we might have every thing in readi- 
ness for our night walk of nearly a mile to the office ; but 
I had learned that the proverb has double force in the East : 
" If you wish a thing done, do it yourself," and accordingly 
I attended to my own waking. If I had not risen and 
called myself, we should have spent the day in Beyrout in- 
stead of crossing Mount Lebanon. JSTot very cheerful was 
that walk through the streets of Beyrout under a cloudy, 
moonless sky, with a single lantern dimly burning, nor was 
the first hour or two of our journey much more inspiriting. 
In the darkness our thoughts were all the while turning to 
the easy couches we had left more than to the scenery 
around us, which we could not see, or the views of Damas- 
cus, its rivers and its plains, which were yet before us. But 
when the morning fairly dawned, as we were ascending 
those lofty heights from which Hiram had cut the cedars 
to build and adorn the Temple of Solomon, and when, in 
the frequent windings of the road, as we made our zigzag 
way upward, we looked back upon the plain and the city 
of Beyrout far down below, and then out upon the sea, the 



396 ABOUND THE WORLD. 

thermometer of our hearts rose as many degrees as did the 
thermometer of Fahrenheit. And all day long we were 
catching new glimpses of the sublime heights and sublime 
depths, until, as we were drawing near to Damascus, the 
hoary head of Mount Hermon appeared in the distance. 

The valley of Coelo-Syria is a beautiful episode in the 
journey. The mountains have little verdure or foliage. 
Occasionally a garden spot or a vineyard appeared, but the 
mountains are usually masses of rock, on which no vegeta- 
tion can take root. After traversing those wild ranges for 
hours, all of a sudden an emerald valley was seen several 
thousand feet below, the mountains rising again on the op- 
posite side. The descent was long, and we went down into 
the valley only to climb the anti-Lebanon range which lies 
beyond. About four o'clock in the afternoon we com- 
menced the descent. In the course of an hour we were in 
a deep gorge, and suddenly came upon a swift-flowing 
stream, which we traversed for many miles, its banks shaded 
with groves and diversified with gardens, the River Abana, 
of the story of Naaman and the Syrian maid. Following 
the course of the stream, we were presently at the entrance 
to the city, and soon found quarters at the excellent hotel 
of Dimitri Cara. 

It was Saturday night when we reached Damascus. In 
the morning we went out into " the street called Straight" 
(some traveler has remarked very truly that it could have 
been called so only out of courtesy), and after a long walk 
we found, at the other extremity of the city, the American 
Mission, and heard an excellent sermon in Arabic from the 
Rev. Mr. Crawford. I call it excellent ; I am sure, from 
my subsequent acquaintance with him, it was so, and his 
manner was at once so easy, earnest, and eloquent, that I 
heartily enjoyed his discourse without understanding a word 
of it. We had a sermon from a stranger, in English, at 11 
o'clock ; and in the afternoon went out to visit the ceme- 
tery of the martyrs of 1860 — the Christian population who, 
in the fearful massacre set on foot by the Mohammedans 



DAMASGUS,TO CONSTANTINOPLE. 397 

and shared by the Druses, were slain in this city to the 
number of 2500 men, besides women and children. Far 
greater would have been the slaughter of the Christians 
had not the hero of Algiers, Abd el Kader, espoused the 
cause of the persecuted. -More by his valor than his elo- 
quence he saved the lives of at least 15,000 whom the Mo- 
hammedans had sworn to put to the sword. We regretted 
much that this noble but unfortunate chieftain was not in 
Damascus during our stay. We desired to pay our respects 
to the hero who had not only won the admiration of the 
world by his valor in the wars of Algiers, and its sympa- 
thy by the treacherous treatment he received from his 
French conquerors, but w^ho, though a Mohammedan, had 
stood forth as the defender of the Christians when those of 
his own faith were fanatically putting them to the sword. 
We sent him our cards, but he was on the Plains. 

Damascus is the oldest city now in existence. It is men- 
tioned in the time of Abraham, the steward of whose house 
was " this Eliezer of Damascus," and its interesting record 
reaches down all along the ages to the present time. The 
city covers a wide extent, and with its suburbs, which are 
well watered and green, is an oasis in the desert in which 
it lies. It is a lovely picture as seen from the mountains, 
the water-courses and the irrigated portion of the plain be- 
ing thickly studded with trees, and shading off into green 
fields of grain that at length are lost in the arid desert. 
We explored its quaint old streets, which have more of 
magnificence than one could imagine from the distant view. 
The bazars are busy marts of trade, well supplied with the 
productions and fabrics of the East. The khans, the ware- 
houses of the merchants, are many of them solid and mag- 
nificent stone structures, surrounding open courts, in which 
the ships of the desert — camels — were discharging and re- 
ceiving their freights of silk and other goods. The khan of 
Esaad Pasha was truly gorgeous in its architecture. After 
going through the bazars and khans, we climbed the moun- 
tain overlooking the great plain to see the city from above. 



398 AROUND THE WORLD. 

and from the lonely kiosk upon its summit had the view 
which arrested the Prophet Mohammed when he exclaim- 
ed, " Man can have only one paradise ; I shall not enter 
this below lest I should have none above," and turned back 
without ever entering Damascus. Such is the legend. 




DAMASCUS. 



Fresh snow had fallen upon the brow of Hermon the 
morning that we left Damascus on our way back to Bey- 
rout, and when the sun rose it shone first with golden and 
then with silver light, reflecting the glory of the East which 
was poured upon it. There it stands as it has stood for 
thousands of years, one of the great landmarks on which 
the patriarchs and prophets looked long before it was trod 
by Him who was greater than them all. Mount Hermon, 
in the opinion of many Biblical scholars, was the scene of 
the Transfiguration. Even now it shines with an inefi^able 
brightness, as if still in the light of that glorious One whose 



DAMASCUS TO CONSTANTINOPLE. 399 

raiment, when on the mount, " became shining exceeding 
white as snow, so as no fuller on earth can white them." 

At Sturza, in the vale of Coelo-Syria, a portion of our 
party struck off to the north to the ruins of Baalbec, while 
we returned to Beyrout, reaching the outlook upon the Med- 
iterranean early in the afternoon of a charming day, and 
enjoying in a wonderfully clear atmosphere, during the 
long zigzag descent, one of the most glorious sights of 
mountain, and plain, and sea that can be found on any of 
the heights of this world. In descending the mountain I 
heard an uproar and a din that gathered strength as we 
proceeded, and presently we were in the midst of one of 
those clouds of locusts that in all ages have infested Syria. 
A public order had been issued requiring the inhabitants 
to turn out and drive the locusts into the sea. The people 
had formed an extensive line, and with horns, and drums, 
and pans, and any thing that would make a hideous noise, 
were pursuing the invaders, which were fleeing before them. 
The music reminded me of a scene I had witnessed in Bom- 
bay on the occasion of an eclipse of the moon, when the 
Hindoos swarmed in the streets armed with the same weap- 
ons, hoping by their insufferable jargon to drive away the 
monster that was swallowing the queen of night. They 
were both successful. The Hindoo monster was compelled 
to disgorge — the moon came out as bright as before ; and 
on the mountains of Lebanon the locusts that had been de- 
stroying all the greenness of the earth, unable to endure the 
music, moved on in a vast cloud toward the Mediterranean. 
Whether they reached the sea and were drowned I do not 
know. 

Once more we were afloat. We had again said the fare- 
well, which we have so often found it hard to say ; the an- 
chor was lifted, and we were steaming onward through 
the waves ; the city at the foot of Lebanon grew dim in 
the distance — the city of which the author of the " Cres- 
cent and the Cross," in his unrivaled sketches of Eastern 
travel, wrote : " Beautiful Beyrout ! I yield to thee the 



400 



AROUND THE WORLD. 



palm over all the cities of the earth ;" the mountains grew 
darker and dimmer in the twilight, and night at length 
settled down over the sea. 

In the morning we touched at the island of Cyprus, the 
scene of a strange mixture of myths and traditions, and 
history, reaching down from the days of fable, when Ye- 
nus rose from the foam of the sea in all her beauty, to the 
days of Richard Coeur de Lion, when the island passed into 
the hands of the Templars, and until it was at last cap- 
tured by the Turks. The third day we anchored off the 
harbor of Rhodes, where once stood the famed Colossus, 
one of the seven wonders of the world. The same even- 
ing we sailed along the shores of " the isle that is called 
Patmos," to which the beloved disciple of Jesus, the Apos- 
tle John, was banished in the persecution under Domitian, 
the scene of the apocalyptic vision. On the fourth day, as 
the sun was lifting its face above the hills that overhang 





DAMASCUS TO CONSTANTINOPLE. ^Q^ 

the city of Smyrna, we entered the deep harbor and an- 
chored off the town. The country around was greener 
and fresher than any we had seen since leaving the shores 
of Japan, always excepting the tropical shores near the 
equator. The city was smiling in the morning light as if 
conscious of its surroundings, and of its own beauty as 
seen from the sea. It had other attractions for one of our 
number, and a few hours were most agreeably spent in the 
society of friends, and in an excursion to the hill on which 
stand the ruins of the ancient castle. Here we received 
the usual welcome from a score of Mohammedan boys, a 
general stoning, which greeting was returned until they 
dispersed over the hill. 

Smyrna is memorable as one of the many cities in which 
Homer was born, and still more sacred in the eyes of the 
Christian as the scene of the martyrdom of Polycarp, to 
whom, as " the Angel of the Church in Smyrna," accord- 
ing to Archbishop Usher, one of the seven epistles of the 
Apocalypse was addressed. He had been bishop of this 
church more than eighty years, when, in one of the Ro- 
man persecutions, he was summoned to judgment. As 
he was led out to the place of execution, the proconsul, 
ashamed to put to death so venerable a man, besought him 
to blaspheme Christ and save his life. It was then that 
he uttered those heroic words : " Eighty-six years have I 
served him ; during all this time he never did me any in- 
jury ; how then can I blaspheme my King and Saviour ?" 

Leaving Smyrna toward evening, we stopped at Myti- 
lene, touched the next day at Tenedos, Dardanelles, and 
Gallipoli, and on the following morning at sunrise were in 
sight of the domes and minarets of Stamboul. 

Co 



402 ABOUND THE WOBLD. 



XXXI. 

STAMBOUL TO NAPLES. 

Almost the only place in all the world where the smile 
of heaven through pleasant skies forsook us was at Con- 
stantinople. Circumstances had shortened my stay in Pal- 
estine and Syria so that 1 reached this stage of the jour- 
ney a month earlier than I had arranged on leaving home, 
and a month too soon to enjoy the beauties of Stamboul 
and the Golden Horn of the Bosphorus. We sailed up the 
Sea of Marmora and rounded Seraglio Point in the midst 
of a drizzling rain, which changed to snow soon after we 
landed ; the snow continued to fall, or rather to drive im- 
petuously for two whole days ; and for nearly three weeks 
it was almost incessant rain. Not for a day, no, not for an 
hour in all this time did the sun come out and shine upon 
us as it had shone for nearly a year. Those were dismal 
days in which to see the glories of the Orient, although 
very conducive to enjoyment in the many circles of friends 
which we found in Stamboul and scattered along the Bos- 
phorus. One can appreciate friends five or six thousand 
miles away from home, when the heavens are weeping 
over him, and there were many associations that made the 
society at this place peculiarly agreeable to some of us. 

Of all the cities that I have visited, Constantinople prop- 
er is the last to be chosen for a season of rain and mud; 
but, despite all difficulties, we made the tour of the mosques, 
palaces, bazars, and other places of renown, and, after wait- 
ing in vain for the skies to clear, we saw the Bosphorus and 
the Golden Horn under a cloud. H I do not celebrate the 
beauties of this part of the Orient, it must be because I saw 
them only in deep shadows, and other pens will more than 



STAMBOUL TO NAPLES. 4.()3 

supply all that may be lacking in these sketches. The next 
time that we go to Constantinople it shall be on the hrst of 
May. 

The political condition of this part of the world remains 
unchanged, while progress is the order of the day East and 
West. Turkey is still Turkey. Its government is the 
most effete, inefficient, irresponsible, and at the same time 
despotic, with which civilized nations have any thing to do, 
and Constantinople, in one way or another, is a centre of in- 
terest to nearly all the nations of the West. In the prov- 
inces the government is even worse than at the capital. In 
the vocabulary of Turkish officials Justice has no name, 
excepting as it is represented by the Turkish synonyms of 
bribery or influence. What is to be the future of Turkey 
is still one of the problems over which philanthropists and 
diplomatists, and especially the powers of Europe, are exer- 
cised. Almost any change would be for the better; it 
could scarcely be for the worse. A radical change of some 
kind is needed to bring Turkey into sympathy with the rest 
of the world, but the present government is past reform. 

There are some signs of a waking up among the differ- 
ent nationalities which compose the population of the cap- 
ital. The press, and steam, and the telegraph are doing 
their work. I noticed, in passing up and down the Bos- 
phorus from day to day, that nearly every man on the 
steamer had his morning or evening paper. There are 
now published at Constantinople four daily papers in Turk- 
ish, one of which has a weekly illustrated edition for la- 
dies, printed on embossed paper, and another for children. 
There are three dailies in Greek and three in Armenian, 
Besides, there are numerous weekly papers in Turkish, Ar- 
menian, Bulgarian, Arabic, etc., the most of which are own- 
ed and conducted by natives. 

The revival of evangelical religion among the Armenian 
population has been a part of the history of the times, and 
one of the most remarkable movements in connection with 
missionary labor in any part of the East. Forty years ago 



4-04 ABOUND THE WORLD. ' 

the Rev. William Goodell and his wife landed at Constan- 
tinople, the first Christian missionaries to this place from 
America. Others joined them and took up the work, men 
and women whose names will not be forgotten so long as 
the sun and moon endure — Schauffler, Riggs, Hamlin, 
Dwight, Bliss, with many younger. Some of the early la- 
borers I found toiling on in the field, but others have gone 
to their reward, having finished their labors. The work- 
men die, but the work goes on here as elsewhere. Twenty- 
five years ago there were only about a hundred Armenians 
who had embraced the evangelical faith. There are now 
in Turkey seventy churches, with 3200 members, and the 
movement has extended all over the empire. Two thirds 
of the churches which are the fruit of missionary labor 
have native pastors, and nearly half of these are self-sup- 
porting. In 184:7 there were only about 500 recognized as 
Protestants; there are now from fifteen to twenty thousand. 

Scarcely any other city has such a cosmopolitan popula- 
tion. This is indicated by the number of languages in 
which the Holy Scriptures are circulated. I learned from 
the Rev. Mr. Bliss, the Secretary of the American Bible So- 
ciety for Turkey, that there had been circulated within the 
last twelve years 333,415 copies of the Scriptures, includ- 
ing the whole Bible in Arabic, Arjnenian, Armeno-Turkish, 
Osmanlee- Turkish, Greco - Turkish, Hebrew, Wallachian, 
Hungarian, Servian, Judseo-Spanish, English, French, Ger- 
man, Italian, Latin, Swedish, Portuguese, and Dutch, with 
the New Testament in Russian, Bulgarian, Albanian, Syri- 
ac, Slavic, Ancient Greek, and Ancient Armenian, with the 
Gospels in Koordish — thirty languages in all. These are 
not all the languages spoken at this cosmopolitan city. : 

While I was at the hotel at Pera an American gentle- 
man arrived who had been in Constantinople before. In 
speaking of his former visit, he said to me very enthusiast- 
ically, " Th&re is one thing in this city that you must not 
fail to see. Of course you have been to the Mosque of St. 
Sophia, and up and down the Bosphorus and the Golden 



STAMBOUL TO NAPLES. 4()5 

Horn, and have seen the Sultan and all that, but there is 
one thing that you must not fail to see." Before he con- 
cluded his impressive injunction I had become rather im- 
patient to know what it was, when he added, " It is Dr. 
Hamlin." He then gave me an account of the circum- 
stances in which he made the acquaintance of this remark- 
able man. He came there a stranger, fell sick, and, having 
heard the name of Dr. Hamlin, sent for him, and was speed- 
ily cured. Dr. Hamlin happens to be a Doctor of Divinity, 
but there is scarcely any science or art in which he is not 
worthy of the highest degree. I assured my friend that I 
had long enjoyed his acquaintance. 

Eobert College, so liberally endowed by Christopher E. 
Robert, Esq., of New York, and now established on its beau- 
tiful site upon the Bosphorus, owes its existence in a great 
measure to Dr. Hamlin, the president, by whose persever- 
ance it secured a local habitation. Year after year the 
Turkish government, in its usual dilatory way, withheld its 
sanction for the location and erection of the building. Dr. 
Hamlin neglected no opportunity to press his application. 
Once, after a longer interval than usual, he applied through 
some intercessor, when Ali Pasha, the late Grand Vizier, 
gave vent to his desires in the impatient inquiry, " Will 
that Dr. Hamlin never die ?" And so, to get rid of him, 
seeing he would not die, he gave him permission to build. 

After once deferring our departure another week in hope 
of brighter skies, we at length went on board the steamer 
bound for Athens in the midst of a storm of snow, and hail, 
and rain, one of the most forbidding days of our sojourn. 
We had scarcely reached the Sea of Marmora before the 
sun burst forth from the clouds to cheer us on our voyage, 
and to tantalize us with the remembrance of all the days of 
gloom in which his face had been hid. ' But we had the 
satisfaction to learn that we had escaped a perilous voyage 
on the steamer by which I had engaged passage the week 
previous. She was overtaken by a storm on the Sea of Mar- 
mora, and lay all night in the lee of an island waiting for 



406 ABOUND THE WOBLD. 

the morning, all on board having no little apprehension in 
regard to the result. 

We did not trust ourselves to the Turkish or Greek steam- 
ers, which are to be avoided by all who seek either comfort 
or safety in sailing on the Mediterranean. Those belong- 
ing to the Sultan's navy are splendid specimens of naval 
architecture, and, as they ride at anchor in line on the Bos- 
phorus, make a formidable appearance, but I heard many 
stories not at all to the credit of the men who commanded 
them. A Turkish naval officei', once sent with his ship to 
Malta, was gone about three weeks, at the expiration of 
which time he turned up at Constantinople, and reported 
that he had searched diligently, and there was no such place 
in the Mediterranean Sea. Another was sent to Jaffa, and, 
after cruising up and dovra the Syrian coast, returned with 
the report that he could not find it. It is to be hoped that 
those who have command of the passenger steamers have a 
better knowledge of the sea, but I never felt disposed to 
test their nautical skill. On the Mediterranean I invaria- 
bly took either the French or the Austrian steamers, be- 
tween which there was little to choose ; they are both good, 
well officered, and well managed. 

We left Constantinople at four o'clock in the afternoon, 
and had fine weather through the Sea of Marmora and the 
Archipelago to the shores of Greece. The second night 
out we retired not expecting to be on shore before morn- 
ing, but about half past one we were roused with the cry 
that the lights of the Piraeus were in sight, and that we 
must be prepared to land within a few minutes. 

Far worse than starting oif by night in a stage-coach is 
being roused from sleep to be set ashore in a small boat, on 
some strange coast, in a dark night. But the same familiar 
stars on which we had looked at home from early child- 
hood, and which were as familiar as the faces of sisters and 
brothers, were looking down and smiling upon us, and si- 
lently whispering to our hearts that above them was an eye 
that never sleeps. We dropped anchor about a mile from 



STAMBOUL TO NAPLES. 



407 



the landing. As we were rowed ashore in the quiet star- 
light I heard the sound of approaching oars, and, knowing 
that friends who were some days in advance of ns would 
probably take the steamer that we were leaving, I called a 
name, and heard over the waters an answering voice — 
" All's well !" — and so we passed ; the boatmen not even 
resting on their oars, we were able only to exchange this 
transient salutation in the darkness. We found a carriage 
in waiting on the shore, and within an hour were at the 
hotel in Athens, about six miles distant, and had a pleasant 
sleep before the morning appeared. 

Our steps were first directed to the Acropolis, the centre 
of Athens and of all Greece. We climbed the heights 
crowned with the ruins of the most perfect structure of 
antiquity, and looked out upon the theatre of so many 
grand events in the history of the classic age ; upon the 
ruins of temples, and arches, and amphitheatres, and down 
upon Mars Hill, where Paul stood before an assembly of 
Athenian philosophers and preached Jesus and the resur- 
rection; and upon the Pnyx, where Demosthenes enchained 
with his eloquence the crowds who gathered round the ros- 
trum ; and out over the grand panorama of Lower Greece 
to the same old mountains on which the eyes of sages and 
orators, poets, and sculptors, and warriors had looked cen- 
turies ago, when Greece was in her glory. The Acropolis, 




FlUEZB OF THE PABTHEMOW. 



40 8 ^-S ^ ^^^ TEE WORLD. 

with its commanding height, its magnificent temples, its 
peerless sculpture, and its crowning feature, the colossal 
statue of Minerva, of ivory and gold, a landmark to the 
mariner at sea as well as to the dweller on the Plains, 
might well be called " the eye of all Greece." 

We were strongly urged to make an excursion to the 
Plains of Marathon, but I declined for prudential reasons, 
which soon after had melancholy force. I had escaped the 
Bedouins in the valley of the Jordan, while others were 
compelled to pay tribute, and not without risk to their lives. 
I was well aware, and so was every traveler at the time, 
that the Greek brigands were no more scrupulous in re- 
gard to the rights of property, and that they were on the 
alert for prey. They have a very unhappy way of detain- 
ing for ransom those who happen to fall into their hands, 
and occasionally sending back an ear or a finger if the ran- 
som is delayed. I assured my urgent friends that I was 
not willing to run one risk in fifty of paying a heavy ran- 
som, or of losing my ears for the satisfaction of seeing a lit- 
tle more of the classic soil of Greece, and I was somewhat 
laughed at for my prudence. 

At the same hotel where we were staying was a party 
who determined to make the excursion. Their fate so^n 
after shocked the whole civilized world. They left in the 
morning for Marathon in high spirits, but before night they 
were all in the hands of the brigands. The ladies of the 
party were released and sent back to Athens. Lord Mon- 
caster was subsequently sent to negotiate the ransom of his 
companions, and escaped. The rest were murdered and 
horribly mutilated. 

Keturning to the Piraeus by carriage in preference to the 
rail, we crossed in the night to the island of Syra, and took 
the Austrian steamer for Corfu. The next day we rounded 
Cape Matapan, usually a stormy point with a turbulent sea, 
but on this occasion the elements were enjoying a holiday, 
the winds were off duty, and the waves asleep. In the aft- 
ernoon we were off the Bay of Navarino, where the deci- 



STAMBOUL TO NAPLES. 409 

sive battle was fona-ht in 1827 between the Turkish and 
Egyptian navies on the one side, and the allied British, 
French, and Russian fleets on the other. It was the de- 
struction of the Turkish power on the sea and the libera- 
tion of Greece. In the course of the day we passed Cepha- 
lonia, the Samos of Homer, and, later in the day, Zante, " the 
Flower of the Levant," of which some writer extravagantly 
says, "Zante is especially delightful in spring, when the 
fragrance of the flowering vineyards, orange-trees and gar- 
dens, floats for miles over the surrounding sea." 

The next morning we were entering the Gulf of Corfu, 
and one of the most beautiful scenes that we had looked 
upon in all our travels, reminding us of the Inland Sea of 
Japan, was before ns. The day was perfectly serene. The 
sun rose in great splendor, and poured upon land and sea a 
flood of gorgeous light. I^ot a ripple, not even a dimple, 
was on the face of the water to break the reflection of the 
shores. As we rounded the point of the citadel, a rocky 
height of great strength and greater beauty, overgrown with 
vines of the richest green, the picturesqueness of the scene 
was such as the pen will not describe. The day we spent 
in driving about the charming island was one of the days 
to be recalled when we are looking into the memories of 
the past for some lovely nook in which to find rest from 
the weariness of toil and care. 

We could have tarried much longer with great delight, 
but, finding a steamer that was to sail in the evening, and 
uncertain when we should be able to leave again, we went 
on board, and the next morning were landed at Brindisi, a 
place that has acquired new importance. It is the Brun- 
dusiuni of the ancient Romans, and was once their chief 
naval station. It was also the southeastern terminus of the 
ancient Appian Way, and, in the completion of one of those 
remarkable cycles which not unfrequently occur in the his- 
tory of nations and countries, has become the terminus of 
the great railway from London and Paris to the East. The 
most direct route to Egypt and India, and the most speedy, 



4,10 AROUND THE WORLD. 

is now through the Mont Cenis Tunnel to Brindisi, whence 
the steamer leaves for Alexandria. 

Brindisi is a good place to stop at, provided one is not 
detained. We tarried just twelve hours longer than was 
desirable, landing at seven in the morning, and leaving at 
the same hour in the evening. With nothing to see, and 
nothing to do but to wait for the evening train, the hours 
passed on leaden wheels. It was rainy without and damp 
within ; the new Grand Hotel des Lides Orientales, then 
scarcely completed, was dripping with wet, and we sat and 
meditated on fevers and rheumatism until the cars kindly 
bore us away, bound for Naples. 

In crossing the mountain range between the eastern and 
western shores of Italy, we were transferred, for a few 
miles, from the cars to the diligence, the tunnel not being 
completed. We were here reminded once more of bandit- 
ti — the Italian brigands, who belong to the same fraterni- 
ty with the Greeks and Bedouins, whose hands we had es- 
caped. They have the same habit of picking off stragglers 
and picking up baggage. The conductor prepared for them 
by placing the baggage- wagons under the protection of the 
passenger train of carriages, and we crossed the mountain 
without having a sight of their muskets. 

I know of no other part of Italy, unless it be the plain 
of Sardinia, that bears the marks of such fertility or of 
such careful cultivation as the region north of ISTaples, It 
is a vast plain, the soil is rich and easily tilled, and every 
rood is improved. The trees are trimmed far up, destroy- 
ing their beauty to a great degree, but letting in the sun 
and air upon the fields ; while the vines are festooned from 
tree to tree above the growing crops, giving the country a 
holiday aspect. The peasantry of Italy belong to a differ- 
ent race from the dwellers in the towns. They are more 
industrious in their habits, and large sections of the coun- 
try, devoted to corn and the vine, attest their thrift. 

In entering Naples one is struck with the vagabond, and, 
at the same time, lively character of the mass of the peo- 



STAMBOUL TO NAPLES. 411 

pie. They swarm every where, like bees that are just ready 
to desert a hive that has become too close to contain them. 
They live in the open air, not only seeking their amuse- 
ments and attending to their ordinary business out of 
doors, but cooking and eating in the very thoroughfares of 
the city. All seem bent on catching the pleasures of the 
day as if there were no to-morrow. Formerly the beggars 
constituted one of the most striking features of Neapolitan 
street life. They were your escort in entering the city, 
coming out in crowds, sometimes for miles, to meet the 
public conveyances. They were unremitting in their at- 
tentions as long as you staid, never failing to take off 
their hats to you whenever you made your appearance in 
the streets, and when you were leaving they followed yon 
out of town, wishing you every blessing by all the saints if 
you answered their demands, and cursing you by the whole 
calendar if you did not. Many of them had a merry way 
of begging, throwing somersaults, or playing a tune upon 
their chins, or cutting antics to attract attention, like the 
merriest creatures alive, when they would tell you, as the 
next thing, that they were dying of hunger, and ask for a 
little money for the love of the Madonna. The whole 
kingdom of Naples, and, for aught I know, adjacent king- 
doms, had been raked and scraped to gather in the halt, 
the maimed, the lame, the blind, and all the miserable and 
disgusting objects that could be found, as so much capital 
on which to drive the thriving trade of begging, one of 
the principal branches of business in Naples, and not the 
least profitable either. But that is now changed, and one 
can go into and out of Naples, and stay there, with com- 
paratively little annoyance from this source. 

The Bay of Naples I regard as, beyond comparison, the 
finest single view in the world. It has a combination of 
beautiful features and of interesting associations that clus- 
ter around no other spot. The bay itself has a graceful 
sweep of thirty or forty miles within the islands placed at 
its mouth as sentinels to ward off the towering waves that 



412 AROUND THE WOBLD. 

come rolling in from the sea. Its waters are almost as 
blue as the vault of the sky above it. At the centre of its 
broad sweep stands the genius of the scene, the beautiful, 
majestic, living mountain, that has no equal; graceful in 
its outlines, and standing alone in its grandeur, like Fusi- 
yama, the glory and pride of Japan, N^o other mountain 
has, for my eye, such a power of fascination. I have nev- 
er looked upon it, from whatever point, or how often soev- 
er, that it has not had the same strange, fresh interest, as 
if I had never seen it before. It seems to be a living 
thing. There it stands, year after year, gently breathing 
out its vapor, like breath upon the frosty air, that floats 
away and is soon dissipated. When in a state of eruption 
the signs of life are far more striking. 

The top of Vesuvius is the best point from which to take 
in the beauties of the bay and its surroundings. To the 
west lie the islands that form an important element in the 
perfection of the view. To the south are Sorrento and other 
sunny towns, with the blue mountains towering up behind 
them. The bright, gay city of Naples stretches for miles 
along the shore to the north. In the distance stands the 
tomb of Yirgil, and farther on the town of Pozzuoli, the 
ancient Puteoli, the terminus of the Appian Way, at which 
Paul landed on his memorable journey to Rome, when he 
appealed to Caesar's judgment. Farther on are Baise and 
Cumge, the summer resorts of the Roman emperors and 
men of wealth, the Newport of those days, where they 
erected splendid palaces, and reveled in luxury and dis- 
play. The ruins of their magnificent summer palaces, which 
were built out into the sea, and overhung the heights, 
stretch for miles along the shores. From these same shores 
and their surroundings Virgil took the scenery of his ^ne- 
id. Here are Lake Avernus, and the River Styx, and the 
Elysian Fields, Here, too, are the Sibyl's caves. No part 
of Italy, not even Rome itself, with its suburbs, was more 
consecrated by the homes and writings of her emperors, 
and orators, and bards. 



STAMBOUL TO NAPLES. 413 

At the foot of Yesiivius lie the long-buried cities of 
Herculaneiim and Pompeii, revealed to-day after slumber- 
ing forgotten for eighteen centuries. A world of interest 
gathers around them as we look down into the silent, de- 
serted streets, that so long ago were filled with a bustling 
crowd, and then in one dark storm were overwhelmed. 

In what part of the world can so much that is beautiful 
in scenery, so much that is fraught with classic interest, 
and so much that stirs the heart with tragic recollection, be 
seen at a single glance as from the heights of this burning 
mountain ? And this is an indication of what the traveler 
has to occupy his time and his attention in his sojourn at 
the sunny city of Naples. It requires many days to make 
the various excursions, but I shall not attempt to conduct 
the reader through them all. 

Vesuvius was a burning mountain two thousand years 
before the Christian era. Its fires were extinguished and 
slumbered for a while, but just about the time that Paul 
landed at Puteoli it was seized with convulsions ; the whole 
region was shaken, and several towns were laid in ruins. 
The memorable eruption in which Herculaneum and Pom- 
peii were overwhelmed, the former by lava, and the latter 
by the shower of ashes, occurred in the year 79. The 
younger Pliny, who witnessed it, states that about one 
o'clock in the day he saw a strange cloud overhanging the 
plain of Naples, like a huge pine-tree shooting np to a 
great height and stretching out its branches. This singu- 
lar cloud, which seemed to be composed of earth and cin- 
ders, excited his curiosity, and he embarked in a boat to 
cross the bay and examine into it. As he approached the 
coast, the red-hot cinders and stones fell into the boat, and 
he was obliged to retreat. He proceeded to Stabise to 
spend the night with a friend, but before morning they 
were driven to the fields by the shaking of the house. 

The morning came, but it brought no relief. One shock 
of earthquake succeeded another, as if the foundations of 
tlie world were giving way. The sea receded from the 



4:14: AROUND THE WORLD. 

shore. The mountain poured forth a mass of flame and 
burning rock, and the cloud of cinders spread over the bay 
and over the land. They attempted again to escape to a 
safer distance, and joined the crowd that was surging on- 
ward. Pliny's father had already perished. He led his 
mother by the hand, and fearing she would be pressed to 
death, proposed to step aside and suffer the crowd to pass 
by. He says : " We had scarce stepped out of the path 
when darkness overspread us — not like that of a cloudy 
night, or when there is no moon, but of a room when it is 
shut up and all the lights are extinguished. Nothing was 
to be heard but the shrieks of women, the screams of chil- 
dren, and the cries of men ; some calling for their children, 
others for their parents, others for their husbands, and only 
distinguishing each other by their voices ; one lamenting 
his own fate, another that of his family; some wishing to 
die from the very fear of dying ; some lifting their hands 
to the gods ; but the greater part imagining that the last 
and eternal night was come which was to destroy the gods 
and the world together." 

This was the most fearful eruption on record. Many 
of less account have since occurred, the most remarkable 
in 1779, in which, according to Sir William Hamilton, the 
molten lava was thrown in jets to the height of 10,000 feet. 
More than once have the sides of the mountain broken in 
while the melted lava poured out of its sides, and ran in 
streams toward the plain below. In 1855 I made the 
ascent of the mountain, reaching the top of the cone, and 
looking down into the abyss. It was then comparatively 
quiet ; only the presage of a coming explosion was notice- 
able. Soon after I had left the pent-up fires broke forth ; 
the lava came rushing down in broad streams, filling up 
the ravines, and moving onward toward the sea. At night 
the mountain cast up a fiery mass, and flames marked the 
course of the burning tide. The green trees, encircled by 
the red-hot lava, generated steam, and then exploded with 
terrific noise, scattering the lava in all directions, and mak- 



STAMBOUL TO NAPLES. 415 

ing the scene still more brilliant by setting fire to the trees, 
which, with the mountain itself, illuminated the whole Bay 
of Naples, and the surrounding cities and country. 

Herculaneum was buried too deep in solid lava ever to 
be excavated to any great extent, but the larger part of 
Pompeii has been reclaimed, and one may now walk for 
miles through its streets and among its buildings. He need 
not lose his way ; many of the streets still have the names 
upon the corners, as in modern cities. The ancient pave- 
ment, rutted deep by the carriage-wheels, remains intact, 
not equal, it is true, to the Belgian, but as firm as when it 
was laid eighteen centuries ago. 

Entering the homes of the Pompeians as they were dis- 
covered, we find in them bracelets and jewels, some of ex- 
quisite workmanship, gold and precious stones. Here are 
writing materials ; ink-stands and pens ; lamps, as they 
went out when Pompeii was extinguished ; thimbles, and 
distaffs, and spinning-wheels — in short, the whole catalogue 
of a woman's domestic life, together with all the parapher- 
nalia of the toilet, even to the rouge and false hair, (The 
apothecaries' shops have on hand a large quantity of cos- 
metics, showing that they were in great demand.) 

The cellars were stored with wine, and, although the old 
Falernian has long since evaporated, the amphorae, or earth- 
en jars which contained the wine, stand in rows along the 
walls. In the house of Diomede, one of the most exten- 
sive and elaborately ornamented villas, situated near one 
of the gates of the city, were large numbers of wine-jars of 
great size. This house, being remote from the centre of 
the town, was evidently resorted to by the friends of the 
owner as a place of comparative safety ; but more persons 
probably lost their lives in it than in any other. The skel- 
etons or forms of seventeen persons were found in the cel- 
lars. On the women were found gold necklaces, and brace- 
lets, and other ornaments. Two were little children, whose 
heads were still covered with beautiful hair. In one of 
the houses in Pompeii two of the bodies are kept in a glass 



416 AROUND THE WORLD. 

case, the attitudes and posture of the limbs expressing the 
mortal agony which came upon them. Diomede himself 
(or one who is supposed to. have been the owner of the 
villa bearing his name) was found near the garden gate 
with a purse of gold and other valuables in his hand, while 
an attendant stood by his side grasping the key to the gate. 
Some of the houses have the names of the owners inscribed 
on the outer wall, especially those of a more imposing char- 
acter. Among the familiar names is that of " C. Sallust." 
The house of Pansa, thus marked, one of the largest in the 
city, contained five skeletons when it was opened. 

The shops, with their contents, are as great a curiosity as 
the homes. Some of them are extensive, the property of 
wealthy citizens, from which they derived their incomes. 
There are several bakeries, or cook-shops, in perfect preser- 
vation, from which large quantities of viands have been 
taken. In some the bread was found standing in the ovens. 
The notices around the doors and in the interior show that 
the art of advertising is not a modern invention. In one 
of the villas was found the following poster : 

"Julia has TO LET for five years, 
A BATH, A VENERIUM, NINETY SHOPS, 

WITH TERRACES AND UPPER CHAMBERS." 

They are still without tenants, although they have been ad- 
vertised 1800 years. 

Nearly every thing found in the houses and shops at 
Pompeii is preserved in the National Museum at Naples, 
one of the most interesting collections of antiquities in the 
world. By its help we can readily refurnish the luxurious 
but now deserted homes, see how their inmates lived, and 
learn more of their domestic history than from any other 
source. One can study and muse for days over this ex- 
traordinary collection, and find his interest growing deeper 
every hour that he lingers. 

Before leaving Naples we drove to the cities of its own 
dead, among the characteristic features of the place. The 
Protestant cemetery is a neat church-yard in the outskirts 



STAMBOUL TO NAPLES. 417 

of the town. The cypress here waves over the grave of 
many a stranger who has died far away from the friends 
and scenes of home, but flowers also bloom profusely in 
this sweet resting-place of those who have no more seas to 
cross, and no farther journey in life to make. After lin- 
gering to note, by the various inscriptions, from how many 
lands the sleepers had come, we drove to the Camjpo Santo 
Yecchio, the great charnel-house of Naples. It contains 
three hundred and sixty-five pits, under a wide, paved 
square. Every evening the stone which covers one of 
these pits is removed, and the common dead of the city for 
the da}^ are thrown into it, without even a winding-sheet to 
cover them. The old man and the child, the rough lazza- 
roni and the tender maiden, are dropped in together, and 
lie in one indiscriminate mass ; quick-lime is thrown in to 
consume the bodies, and the pit is sealed for another year, 
to be opened at its close. We did not wait to witness the 
revolting scene, although the city carts were arriving with 
the dead, but drove to the Campo Santo JSTuovo, the ceme- 
tery for the aristocratic dead, and here I was surprised to 
find a burial-ground laid out with refined taste, shaded with 
the cypress and other trees, and adorned with tombs of the 
most costly description. Many of them were in the form 
of chapels built of fine Italian marble, elaborately finished. 
After what I had heard of the burial of the dead at Na- 
ples, and after what I had seen at the Campo Vecchio, it 
was a relief to enter one that indicated so much refine- 
ment of feeling. 

Dd 



418 AROUND THE WORLD. 



XXXII. 

EOME TO FLORENCE. 

The old route from Naples to Rome along tlie sea, 
through Terracina and Mola di Gaeta, was far more pic- 
turesque than the present route by rail, and one could 
fully enjoy it when traveling leisurely by vettura. I was 
once several days on the way, spending a night at Terra- 
cina in a storm, when the wild waves came rolling in from 
the sea, dashing against the walls of the hotel, and threat- 
ening to wash away its very foundations. It was quite 
equal to being rocked in the cradle of the deep. The true 
way to see Italy is not to whirl through it by the rail-car, 
but to take the old modes of conveyance. But every mode 
has its advantages, although no gain in time can compen- 
sate for the loss of the charming Italian scenery, and 
glimpses of Italian country life Avhich were once enjoyed 
in traveling throtigli the interior and along the shores. 

On reaching the Roman frontier, for the first time, and, 
I may add also, the last time in all our journey around the 
world, a demand was made for passports. We had trav- 
eled from one end of Asia to the other, through Egypt and 
Syria, European Turkey and Greece, and thus far in Italy, 
without being called upon to declare our nationality, or ob- 
tain permission to go or come. But now, as we were en- 
tering the estate of his holiness the Pope, we must needs 
go through the old investigation. In no respect has a 
greater change come over the countries of Europe, and es- 
pecially those having Roman Catholic rulers, than in the 
abolition of the passport system, and it is one of the many 
significant indications of the progress of religious freedom, 
as well as of the principles of free government. Several 



BOME TO FLORENCE. 4]^9 

years since I liad traveled over the route I was now taking, 
and, upon reaching home, found that my passport had on 
it eighty-seven vises, or official seals and signatures, as evi- 
dence of my having been permitted to enter and leave dif- 
ferent countries and cities, and in nearly every instance it 
was where Roman Catholic influence was predominant. In 
going even from Rome to Kaples and returning, fifteen or 
twenty examinations were required. The fact that in my 
recent journey, of which I am now writing, my passport 
was only once exhibited in the entire circuit of the earth, 
is a volume of testimony in regard to the progress which 
the world has been making, and also in regard to the 
waning power of popery as a political element. Passports 
are no longer required even at the gates of Rome. They 
belong to an order of things that has passed away even at 
Rome. 

It was night when we reached the Alban Hills and came 
out upon the heights that overlook the Campagna and the 
city of the Caesars, and we could study the scene only in 
imagination, peopling it with the multitudes of the past in- 
stead of the present. As we entered Rome we found it il- 
luminated in commemoration of the anniversary of the re- 
turn of Pius IX. from his long but voluntary exile after the 
occurrence and success of the Revolution of 1848. I call it 
voluntary because he was in no sense compelled, excepting 
by his fears, to flee or to remain in exile. When he was 
chosen pope in 1846, he entered upon a course of reform, 
and corrected many of the abuses which had become hoary 
with the lapse of time. He established his temporal gov- 
ernment on a sort of popular basis, and gave the people a 
taste of liberty, which led to their taking the government 
into their own hands. Pius IX. was personally popular, 
nor was there at any time the least disposition to interfere 
with his position or power as head of the Church. On the 
assassination of his minister. Count Rossi, the pope became 
alarmed, and fled in disguise to Mola di Gaeta, within the 
territory of King Ferdinand of ISTaples. As soon as his de- 



420 AROUND THE WORLD. 

parture from Kome became known, a deputation of emi- 
nent citizens was appointed to wait on him and urge his re- 
turn, with the assurance that there would be no interfer- 
ence with his dignity or his functions as the head of the 
Church, But the reactionary cardinals had him in their 
liands, and would allow no interview, and under their ad- 
vice he remained in exile until the French army had sup- 
pressed the rising liberties of the people and re-established 
the temporal tyranny of a spiritual power. The freedom 
which the city of Rome is now enjoying is that which its 
people won for themselves by their own right arms in 1848, 
and which was subsequently wrested from them by French 
bayonets alone. Never were claims to temporal power 
more false than those which are now urged in behalf of 
the pope, 

A somewhat striking coincidence marked ray coming to 
Rome. I had reached the city in 1854 while the council 
was in session that adopted the dogma of the Immaculate 
Conception as an article of the faith of the Church, I 
stood at that time near the high altar in St. Peter's on the 
day of its public announcement, and heard the pope read 
it from beginning to end. His heart had been set on mak- 
ing this declaration, and cardinals, and bishops, and digni- 
taries of all degrees were called from all parts of the earth 
to bow to his will and say that it was the will of God. He 
read the Latin with a feeble voice, weeping as he read it, 
and it was generally thought at the time that this would be 
the expiring act of his pontificate, I reached Rome again 
in season to be present in St. Peter's at the first public ses- 
sion of the Council of 1870, and heard the same pope an- 
nounce the dogma De Fide preliminary to the impious 
claim of infallibility. He was feebler than before, with 
more than fifteen years added to his age, but there was the 
same iron will before which all inferior ecclesiastics have 
been made to bow. The utterance of this impious assump- 
tion of divine prerogatives was the signal for the providen- 
tial destruction of his temporal as well as spiritual power. 



ROME TO FLORENCE. 421 

Once, as we learn from sacred writ, another ruler, " Herod, 
arrayed in royal apparel, sat upon his throne and made an. 
oration. And the people gave a shout, saying. It is the 
voice of a god, and not of a man. And immediately the 
angel of the Lord smote him because he gave not God the 
glory, and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost." 
Pius IX. survives, but almost immediately upon the utter- 
ance of his dogma, and the shout of the people, " It is the 
voice of a god, and not of a man," his throne crumbled 
and fell, and his spiritual power over those who acknowl- 
edged his supremacy is fast passing away. 

With modern Home and with the remains of the ancient 
city every intelligent reader is familiar, and I should not 
attempt any general description even did my space permit. 
I shall refer only to one or two of its innumerable objects 
of interest. 

The first point to which I bent my steps on entering 
Rome was not the Church of St. Peter, nor the Vatican, 
nor the Coliseum, but a monument that stands on the an- 
cient Via Sacra, in some respects the most interesting ob- 
ject in the ancient or modern city. It is the smallest of the 
triumphal arches, and is known as the Arch of Titus. It 
bears the following inscription : 

Senatvs. 

popvlvsqve romanvs. 

Divo. Tito. Divia. Vespasiana. 

Vespasiano. Avgvsto. 

This arch was erected to commemorate the conquest of Je- 
rusalem. While at the head of the army before the walls 
of the Holy City, Yespasian, upon the death of Kero, was 
proclaimed emperor. He hastened back to Rome, leaving 
Titus in command, who, upon the fall of the city and the 
destruction of the Temple, made a triumphal march into 
Rome, bringing with him a long train of captive Jews, to- 
gether with the spoils, among which were the sacred vessels 
of the Temple. It is this procession which is commemora- 
ted in the beautiful arch. The great interest of the bas-re- 



422 AROUND THE WORLD. 

lief is in the fact that it supplies a place in the illustration 
of the Bible which can be filled from no other source. It 
is the only visible representation that exists of those sa- 
cred vessels, the patterns of which were received from 
heaven. 

The frieze of the arch is ornamented with sculpture — a 
procession of warriors leading oxen to sacrifice. Upon a 
side panel of the interior is a group representing Titus in 
the act of oelebrating his triumph over the Jews. He 
stands in a chariot drawn by four horses abreast, accompa- 
nied by the senators of Rome, and ofiicers bearing the fas- 
ces. The sculptured form of Victory holds a wreath of 
laurel, with which she is about to crown the conqueror. 
Upon the opposite side, on a similar panel, is the celebrated 
group bearing the sacred vessels of the Jewish Temple. 
First comes a standard-bearer leading the way, with a can- 
opy or arch supported above his head. The table of shew- 
bread, with a cup and the silver trumpets used by the priests 
of the Temple to proclaim the year of jubilee, is borne on 
staves. Other bearers follow, carrying chaplets of laurel, 
and the golden candlestick with its seven branches. In 
size and form these bas-reliefs correspond precisely with 
the descriptions of the sacred record and the minute de- 
scriptions of Josephus. Little did those ancient pagans — 
the Roman senate and the Roman people — when decree- 
ing and erecting this monument to a deified warrior, imag- 
ine that they were erecting a monument to the true God in 
the verification of prophecy and divine history, and little 
did they suppose that, after nearly two thousand years, the 
disciples of that faith which they had already begun to per- 
secute even unto cruel death would come from distant lands 
to read the record and to be confirmed in their faith. The 
Jews of modern Rome are said to be the descendants of the 
captives which Titus brought from Jerusalem to grace his 
triumph. ISTot one of them, even at this day, will pass un- 
der the Arch of Titus, although it spans one of the thor- 
oughfares of the city. They shun it as a memorial of the 



EOME TO FLORENCE. 



423 



subjugation of their nation, a fall which has never yet been 
retrieved. 

One of the most perfect and most striking of the relics 
of pagan Rome is the Pantheon. It has lost its external 
beauty in the covering of marble, but its massive walls and 
the form of the building remain just as when erected sev- 
eral years before the Christian era. It is still a wonder of 
architecture, faultless in its beautiful and grand proportions, 
and, notwithstanding its simplicity, it is to me the most im- 
pressive of the ancient or modern buildings of Rome. It 
stands in what was formerly the Campus Martins, where it 
was surrounded by the buildings belonging to the Thermae 
of Agrippa, and was reached by a flight of steps, all of 
which must have added greatly to its effect. Now it is in 
one of the meanest corners of the city, and is scarcely on a 
level with the adjacent streets. The portico, which is re- 
garded as a model, is 110 feet long, forty-four in depth, and 
is composed of sixteen Corinthian columns of Oriental 
granite, each one of which is a single block or shaft. They 
are forty-six and a half feet in height, and fifteen in cir- 
cumference. The entablature and pediment are still per- 
fect, and the frieze bears the following inscription, extend- 
ing along the entire front : 

M. AGRIPPA. L. F. COS. TERTIVM FECIT. 

The massive bronze doors are acknowledged by the best au- 
thorities to be those set up by Agrippa. Although nearly 
forty feet in height, and having swung upon their hinges 
for nineteen centuries, they may still be moved by the hand 
of a child. The building is circular, 143 feet in diameter, 
or more than 400 feet in circumference. The walls, which 
are twenty feet in thickness, rise to the height of seventy 
feet, when they pass into one vast dome, the centre of which 
is 143 feet above the pavement. The dome is more im- 
pressive than that of St. Peter's, and one peculiarity adds a 
charm to that impression such as I have never found in any 
other building. The dome is open at its centre, the aper- 



424: ABOUND THE WOULD. 

tnre being twenty-seven feet in diameter. It was never 
closed, even by glass, and the storms of nearly two thousand 
years have beaten through it and fallen upon the pavement 
below. This might seem a defect, but it constitutes, in re- 
ality, its most beautiful, if not its grandest feature. The 
circular walls are unbroken by windows, and, when the 
massive bronze doors are closed, this aperture in the dome 
is the only source of light, and communicates directly witli 
the heavens above. One can look up and see the clouds 
floating by, or gaze into the blue ether, while the lower 
world is shut out by walls which no earthly sounds can 
penetrate. The poetry and sublimity of this conception 
for a temple may be imagined. It excludes all things ter- 
restrial — opens heaven alone to the worshiper, and that, too, 
without any intervening medium. 

An anecdote characteristic of Roman morals is related 
in a manuscript narrative of the sack of Rome, preserved 
at the Vatican. When Charles Y. visited Rome in 1536, 
he ascended the roof of the Pantheon, and looked down 
through the aperture from above. A young Roman who 
had been ordered to accompany him afterward confessed 
to his father that he was strongly tempted to push the mon- 
arch over on the pavement below, a depth of nearly 150 
feet, in revenge for the sack of the city a few years before. 
The wily old Italian said, " My son, such things should be 
done, and not talked about." 

The Pantheon has been stripped of all its costly orna- 
ments, leaving only its simple gi-andeur to delight the eye. 
Formerly the outer walls were faced with marble, which is 
now all gone. The vast dome was covered with gilded 
bronze, and its interior either lined or profusely ornament- 
ed with silver. The plates of bronze that covered the roof, 
and the silver, were removed by Constans II,, A.D. 655, 
and afterward taken to Alexandria. Pope Urban YIII.. 
completed the plunder of the building by taking the bronze 
beams of the portico to form the baldachino of the high 
altar of St. Peter's, and to cast cannon for the castle of St. 



ROME TO FLORENCE. 425 

Angelo. This pope belonged to the Barberini family, and 
used a part of the plunder to ornament the Barberini pal- 
ace. Pasquin, the mediaeval oracle of Rome, made the fol- 
lowing record of its final desecration: Quod non fecerunt 
Barhari Roinoe,, feceriint Barberini. (What the Barbari- 
ans left of Rome, the Barberini destroyed.) The prince of 
painters, Raphael, who was a great admirer of the sublime 
structure, requested that he might be buried within its 
walls. When he died, his body, together with his last and 
noblest work, the Transfiguration, was exposed for three 
days in the Pantheon, and visited by crowds, who gazed 
upon both with equal interest, but with different emotions. 
His remains were afterward deposited in a niche formed 
in the walls, and the spot is now marked by a simple slab 
with an inscription in Latin. For many years the Academy 
of St. Luke, an association of artists, had a skull in their 
possession, said to be Raphael's. As doubts had arisen in 
regard to the actual resting-place of the immortal master 
of the pencil, it was determined in 1833 to settle the ques- 
tion by an examination of his tomb. It was accordingly 
opened in the presence of several ecclesiastical dignitaries 
and artists, and the skeleton was found entire just as it had 
been entombed. The relics were replaced, inclosed in an 
antique marble sarcophagus from the Vatican Museum. 
Of course the skull in the possession of the Academy of St. 
Luke lost its value, notwithstanding it had often awakened 
the admiration of phrenologists, who had found the paint- 
er's bump strikingly developed. But perhaps it did belong 
to a great artist. Who knows ? 

The ardent student of classical poetry and history (which 
in ancient times were often identical) is greatly scandalized 
in coming to the banks of the Tiber. Instead of a mighty 
river commensurate with its fame, he finds a small, muddy 
stream, scarcely any where two hundred yards wide. The 
mud, the narrowness, the very swiftness of its current, as 
if it were hurrying away to the sea to escape observation, 
are too much for him at the first glance. But as he gazes, 



426 ABOUND THE WORLD. 

the events whicli ages ago crowded around its banks, and 
which were known and felt the world over, come up before 
him like a grand procession, and it is no longer the insig- 
nificant stream, but the river of ancient Rome. That is 
distinction enough. It matters little to an ordinary trav- 
eler whether the stories of ^neas, and of Romulus and 
Remus, are myths or veritable history. Yery few who come 
to Italy have any purpose or desire to settle the questions 
of fancy and of fact with which the early days of Rome 
are environed. This is left for the Niebuhrs whose tastes 
incline them in that direction. It is far more pleasant (and, 
for all practical purposes at the present day, it is just as 
well) to do as we did when school-boys — accept as history 
the story of the founder of Rome cast by the waters of the 
Tiber upon the spot where he afterward built the city. 

The river is always turbid. Virgil is the only author 
who calls it ccerulean, and this was a stretch of poetic li- 
cense quite beyond the mark. Upon what the fancy was 
founded it would be difficult to tell. It often overflows its 
banks as in ancient times, and the Campus Martius, on 
which the modern city is chiefly built, becomes inundated. 
The height of the water is marked upon columns standing 
on the river bank in the Yia Ripetta, and also upon the f a- 
gade of the Church of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, in the 
very heart of the city, where the marks are some ten or 
twelve feet above the pavement. I have seen the pave- 
ment of the Pantheon several feet under water, so that the 
building could be entered only by boats. Treasures of art 
have often found their way into the river, which, if they 
could be recovered, would bring in the art markets of the 
world immense prices. Statuary more perfect, and perhaps 
more beautiful than any of the works of the ancient mas- 
ters that are now preserved in the Vatican, doubtless lie 
imbedded in groups in the muddy bottom. The famous 
banker of the time of Leo X., Agostino Chigi, gave to the 
pope and his cardinals a splendid and costly entertainment, 
at which the dishes were all of the precious metals. It is 



ROME TO FLORENCE. 427 

said that when the feast was over they were thrown into 
the Tiber by the order of the rich banker, that no less illus- 
trious guests might use them. There is a tradition that 
the sacred vessels of the Jewish Temple, brought from Je- 
rusalem, among them the golden candlestick, were lost or 
thrown from the Milvian Bridge and never recovered. 

There is nothing connected with the antiquities of Home 
that Christian travelers visit with deeper interest than the 
Catacombs, although few venture far into their dark and 
intricate recesses. These narrow passages, some of which 
are sixty or seventy feet below the surface of the ground, 
run in all directions under the city and under the Cam- 
pagna. The whole country is honey-combed by them, and 
it is said that in ancient times there was communication 
through them from Rome to the sea, fifteen or twenty 
miles distant. The openings or entrances are few, but it 
is not uncommon for riders over the Campagna to break 
through into those that are nearer the surface. 

Their origin is not absolutely known — at least Inhere are 
no authentic records of their excavation ; but it is alto- 
gether probable they were formed in the early days of 
Rome by digging for the volcanic sand q,2^q^ jpozzulana^ 
which was used extensively in making the Roman cement 
for the erection of buildings — that mortar which has re- 
sisted the action of the elements more than two thousand 
years, and which bids fair to last as long as the stones 
themselves. The pozzulana was removed in the same way 
that coal is dug — in long avenues crossing each other at 
various angles, leaving enough of the earth or rock to sus- 
tain the superincumbent mass. They have fallen in at 
many places, completely blocking up the way, and, as there 
is always danger of such an occurrence, visitors are usu- 
ally taken only a short distance, just to show how they were 
formed, and for what purpose they were subsequently used. 
Sad indeed would be the fate of those who should be bur- 
ied beneath the falling mass, and sadder yet of those 
whose retreat should be cut off, while they were left to 



428 



AROUND THE WORLD. 




GROUND PLAN OF THE CATACOMBS. 



wander hopelessly until comj^elled by weariness and weak- 
ness to lie down and die. Some thrilling incidents are 
related as warnings to those who enter, and to repress the 
curiosity of such as might wish to exceed the limits which 
prudence has assigned to the exploration of these subter- 
ranean passages. Several years since, fifteen or twenty 
youth, connected with one of the colleges of Rome, ac- 
companied by a teacher, descended with candles, taking 
the usual precautions to secure their safe return to the light 



ROME TO FLORENCE. 429 

of day, but not one of them ever came out to tell the fate 
of the rest. They either lost their way, and wandered on 
in hope of finding the path that would lead them back 
until compelled by exhaustion to lie down and die, or the 
fall of the earth on the path they had taken cut off their 
escape. Long and diligent search was made, but to this 
day nothing is known of how or where in the vast laby- 
rinth they were overtaken by death. The imaginations of 
those who go down into those dark recesses picture many 
a fearful scene which no words have power to express. 

Later still, an artist entered the Catacombs alone, pro- 
viding himself with a ball of twine, which he unwound as 
he wandered on, until he became absorbed with the records 
and recollections of other days. When he came to himself, 
the slender thread that bound him to the outer world was 
missing ; with his dim taper he searched for it in vain ; at 
last the light grew dim, and was then extinguished. In 
the horror of despair, he groped from one passage to anoth- 
er, until at last he stumbled in the darkness, and, in his 
struggles, his hand caught the thread which brought him 
back to the world. 

The peculiar interest attaching to these Catacombs is, 
that during the early ages of Christianity, in the times of 
persecutions by the Roman emperors, they were the resort 
of Christians for safety, and probably, to some extent, for 
worship. They formed a secure refuge for those who 
were familiar with their windings, and it is probable that 
great numbers fled to them to escape the cruel death. to 
which they were devoted by their persecutors. Either at 
the time they were thus used, or subsequently, thej^ became 
sepulchres for the Christian dead. Niches were cut longi- 
tudinally in the sides of the long corridors, sometimes 
five or six one above another, in which the dead were 
deposited ; they were then closed with a slab of marble 
or terra cotta, and sealed with cement. In this way they 
became populous cities of the dead. Not thousands, but 
hundreds of thousands, were here laid to sleep their last 



430 AROUND THE WORLD. 

sleep. When they were first opened the bodies were in all 
states of preservation or decay. Some retained their form, 
in other cases the skeletons only remained, while the great 
multitude had crumbled into dust or had entirely disap- 
peared. 

The entrances to the Catacombs, which have all been un- 
der the strict supervision of the ecclesiastical authorities, 
are chiefly through or in connection with the churches, 
and are few in number, notwithstanding the limitless ex- 
tent of the excavations. The one most accessible and most 
frequently visited by strangers is at the Church of St. Se- 
bastian, a mile or more on the Appian Way, outside of the 
walls of the city. I had several times been into this as far 
as the old monk in charge consented to act as guide, and 
as far, probably, as he was familiar with the windings of 
the way, beyond which it certainly was not safe to venture 
alone, as a single turn might bewilder any one, and lead 
him into an endless labyrinth. An ecclesiastic who was 
visiting Rome to be present at the council entered at one 
time with our party, but he soon became alarmed, and en- 
treated us not to go farther, as we must needs keep togeth- 
er to have the services of the guide. Having seen all that 
was to be seen of this, I was desirous to make a more ex- 
tensive examination of those which had not been so com- 
pletely rifled of their contents, and learning that the Cata- 
combs in connection with the Church of St. Agnese, in an- 
other part of the Campagna, were far more interesting on 
this account, a party was made up, application was made to 
the cardinal vicar, and, through the intercession of an 
American lady, permission to enter was obtained. An in- 
telligent gentleman who was well acquainted with the 
place and with its history was deputed to accompany us. 
We spent a large part of the morning appointed for the 
visit in wandering through the silent vaults, which, unlike 
the others, are still filled with the crumbling remains of 
the early confessors of the Christian faith. The excava- 
tions are much more regular, and on a larger scale than 



ROME TO FLORENCE. 43;! 

those which we had previously seen. Instead of being 
more unsafe, as is generally supposed, they are less liable 
to crumble and fall. The rock in which the excavations 
are made is more solid, allowing the passages to be cut with 
more exactness, and they run often to a great distance in a 
right line. The roofs are vaulted with regularity, and the 
sides cut perfectly square. The same niches occur as in 
the other Catacombs, and rise one above another to the 
number of five or six, but they have not been touched ex- 
cepting to remove the slabs and inscriptions. The bones 
of the dead by hundreds, and even thousands, were lying 
where they were deposited sixteen or eighteen centuries 
ago. Occasionally they were in a state of preservation, 
and not unfrequently were covered with a mineral deposit 
from the drippings of the rock above, which had assisted 
in keeping them entire; in many cases it seemed to have 
produced a sort of petrification, but generally, where the 
form of a body, or even of a bone appeared, it would sink 
and almost vanish under the touch, all substance having 
gone. The teeth were occasionally undecayed, and, as I 
took one from its socket, the bone to which it had been at- 
tached sank immediately away. 

The bodies had been laid in their narrow couches uncof- 
fined, and, as the slabs had been removed, all that remained 
of the sleepers was exposed to view ; but there was nothing 
repulsive in the sight, as there would be in an ordinary 
charnel-house, nor any thing melancholy in the place itself. 
The sacred. Christian associations dispelled such thoughts. 
These bodies, which had been slumbering quietly for nearly 
two thousand years, had been laid away in the hope of a 
coming morning — the morning of the resurrection, when 
the dust into which they would crumble should be gather- 
ed again and reanimated, to meet at his coming Him who 
is the resurrection and the life. Many trembling hearts 
had been driven by the persecutors into' these recesses to 
escape the sword or the jaws of wild beasts ; but when they 
ceased to beat, whether through violence or by a natural 



432 ABOUND THE WORLD.. 

death, they were all and forever at rest. The storms of 
centuries had raged above their heads, armies had met in 
deadly conflict on the soil above them, but they slept on un- 
disturbed. Instead of being oppressed with sad or mourn- 
ful thoughts, a feeling of triumph — of actual joy, came over 
me in the remembrance of the glorious victories over death 
and every other foe that had been gained by the host around 
me. After lighting the good fight of faith, and resisting 
unto blood, they had gone up to receive the reward and the 
crown of the martyrs. 

When the Catacombs were first opened inscriptions were 
found on the slabs, some of them rudely cut, and not un- 
frequently they were accompanied with emblematical de- 
vices expressive of Christian hope or sentiment. The slabs 
were removed and set in the wall of the long corridor lead- 
ing to the Museum of the Vatican, where they may now be 
seen. Among the most common emblems were the Three 
Children in the Fiery Furnace, and Daniel in the Lions' 
Den, doubtless used as emblems of martyrdom ; the Good 
Shepherd, with a Lamb on his shoulders ; Noah at the win- 
dow of the Ark ; the Dove ; an Anchor ; a Fish, the signifi- 
cance of which as an early Christian emblem is well known ; 
with representations of the miracles of Christ, etc. 

I give but a few specimens of the multitude of inscrip- 
tions : " Valeria dormit in pace" (Valeria sleeps in peace). 
"In pace Domini dormit" (He sleeps in the peace of the 
Lord). " In pace" and " In Christo" occur frequently. 
The constant occurrence of the word " sleep" as a synonym 
for death is striking. The following are mere translations 
of inscriptions : 

" Lannes, the martyr of Christ, rests here. He suffered 
under Diocletian." 

" In the time of the Emperor Adrian, Marius, a young 
military leader, who had lived long enough : with his blood 
he gave up his life for Christ. At length he rested in 
peace. The well-deserving, with tears and fears, erected 
this in the Ides of December, VI." 



HOME TO FLORENCE. 



433 



" Here lies Gordianus, deputy of Gaul, murdered with all 
his famil}^ for his faith. They rest in peace. Theophila, 
his maid, erected this." 

I can not attempt even the briefest enumeration of the 
places and objects of interest, ancient and modern, which 
are in and around Eome ; it is a world in itself, and I have 
found by experiment that months would not exhaust the 
study. The Vatican, the Capitol, the ancient and modern 
palaces, the Coliseum, the churches, which are also reposi- 
tories of art ; the Seven Hills, the Appian Way, the sub- 
urbs, Albano, Frascati, and a thousand ruins, each one of 
which has its classic history, all claim the attention of the 
traveler, but can not have their record here. There is no 
other city in Europe where an intelligent traveler can tarry 
so long with so much interest. But we must pass on. I 
can not do so, however, without expressing my own pleasure 
in the thought that Eome, which I had seen only under a 
dark shadow — the shadow of spiritual despotism, is now in 
the light. The sun is shining on Rome as it has not shone 
for many long centuries, save in the brief period after the 
Revolution of 1848. Its people walk the streets breathing 
the air of freedom — freedom to think their own thoughts 
and speak their own words, enjoying the protection of a 
liberal government, even though it be a kingly. Long live 
Victor Emanuel, and long may he reign over United Italy 
— at least so long as he pursues the enlightened policy which 
he has been carrying out since he came to the throne. And 
ever may the people of Rome rejoice in freedom from 
ghostly tyranny, the most oppressive of all forms of despot- 
ism. The temporal power of tlie pope will assuredly never 
be re-established with " the consent of the governed." 

As a matter of necessity, owing to the arrangement of 
the trains, we made a night journey to Florence, entering it 
in the morning, and greatly enjoying the views of river, and 
mountain, and vale as we approached the city. Victor 
Emanuel can not have set his heart upon making Rome 
the capital of the new kingdom of Italj^ on account of its 

Ee 



4:34 



ABOUND THE WORLD. 



greater beauty. There is no inland city in Europe more 
superbiy located than Florence. If not a gem in itself, the 
setting makes it one. The surrounding heights, with the 
numerous villas, and vineyards, and monasteries that crown 
the hills, make the sight one to be enjoyed and never for- 
gotten. The view from San Miniato, which is reached by 
one of the most beautiful drives in the suburbs of any city 
in the M'orld, can scarcely be surpassed by any mere inland 
view. 




i'LOEESCE, FROM SAN MINIATO. 



And Florence is as attractive as ever in its works of art. 
The Uffizi and Pitti Palaces, the treasure-houses of paint- 
ing, have witnessed revolutions raging around them, but 
their pictures and other treasures remain where they were. 
It is a marvel as well as a pleasure, after reading of the 
many changes in the government of these lands, to find its 
galleries of art and all that they contain untouched. The 
first Napoleon ruthlessly despoiled Italy, but the sentiment 



ROME TO FLORENCE. 435 

of the world, as well as his own changing fortunes, com- 
pelled him to restore what others have not dared to touch. 
The removal of the court to Rome will make no change in 
the art treasures of Florence ; they will remain undisturb- 
ed, and future travelers will find them just where they 
were found before Victor Emanuel was welcomed to Flor- 
ence. 

The days passed quickly away in visiting and revisiting 
the galleries, where one can linger for weeks;, the Duomo, 
with its Campanile and Baptistery ; Santa Croce, and San 
Lorenzo, and the many places and objects of interest which 
have so long attracted crowds of travelers to the beautiful 
city, made more attractive than ever before. An excursion 
to Pisa, distant about an hour, afforded a sight of the Lean- 
ing Tower, and of the Cathedral in which still hangs the 
bronze chandelier, the swinging of which suggested to the 
philosophical mind of Galileo the theory of the pendulum, 
the first step toward his demonstration of the nature and 
order of the solar system, for which he came near suffering 
martyrdom at the hands of the Church of Rome. I great- 
ly scandalized the priest who attended us when I gently 
touched the chandelier and gave it a swing, that I might be 
brought more into communication with the heretic Galileo 
by seeing it in motion. 

Florence, since it has passed from under the dominion of 
the Gran d-d like, has become a centre of light and true re- 
ligious influence for all Italy. There is something truly 
sublime and almost inexplicable in the stand which Victor 
Emanuel has taken in regard to religious liberty. He is 
not reputed to be a man of religious sentiment or feeling ; 
quite otherwise ; and yet, since he first came to his father's 
throne, he has pursued a steady course in securing to his 
subjects the right to worship God, and in granting to his 
people equal privileges without regard to their religious 
opinions. The Waldenses, who for ages suffered oppression 
even when they were not suffering persecution, are now 
represented in the Italian Parliament, and enjoy full eccle- 



436 AROUND THE WOELD. 

siastical privileges. It was said in Turin many years ago, 
when Yictor Emanuel was king of that corner of Italy, 
that he received the principles of religious toleration as a 
sacred legacy from Charles Albert ; if so, he has been a 
faithful executor of his father's will. Not all the threats 
of excommunication, nor excommunication itself, which has 
been hurled at his head more than once, has had any effect 
to turn him from his course. 



XXXIII. 

VENICE HOMEWAED. 



In the journey from Florence to Venice, where once 
the traveler passed over the Apennines, we passed directly 
through them, piercing the mountains by more than forty 
tunnels within the space of two or three hours. We scarce- 
ly emerged from one before we dived into the gloom and 
darkness of another, until it really seemed as if the eye of 
day was simply winking at us — now shut, now open, and 
now shut again. ITight came on, and the stars came out 
long before we reached " The City of the Sea ;" but near 
midnight we landed (if leaving terra firma and taking to 
the water can be called landing), and glided quietly to our 
quarters at the hotel a mile or more distant. 

There are only two cities in the world that I have found 
just what I expected. When I first caught sight of Jeru- 
salem in crossing the hills of Judea, and when I looked 
down upon it from the Mount of Olives, it was the Jeru- 
salem of my thoughts ; I had been there often before. 
When I reached the railway terminus on the lagoon at 
Venice, and took a gondola instead of an omnibus, and 
was rowed by moonlight through one sti'eet after another, 
and at length landed at the door of the hotel, into which I 
stepped from the gondola ; and when, on the following 



VENICE HOMEWABD. 437 

days, I floated througli the liquid streets, into and along 
the Grand Canal, past the old and now deserted palaces, 
beneath the Kialto, and under the Bridge of Sighs ; and 
as I stood in the grand square of San Marco, and entered 
the Doge's Palace, and walked tlirough its great historic 
halls, and descended into its subterranean and subaqueous 
dungeons, I found myself just where I had been a hun- 
dred times. It was not the realization of a dream — it was 
the dream prolonged ; every thing was as I had fancied it. 
Venice is a city so peculiar, so unlike all other cities we 
have ever known, that we do not base our conceptions of 
it upon what we have seen of other places, but upon actual 
descriptions. 

In this singular city travelers must needs become am- 
phibious. They sleep in houses, not upon the land, but 
anchored in the sea. If they step into the street they step 
upon the water. If they wish to make a call upon a friend, 
they order, not a carriage, but a gondola. There is not a 
carriage in all Venice, and only one horse, which is kept 
on an adjacent island as a curiosity. He would have been, 
in truth, rara avis if he had not been a horse. Over the 
streets, which are water, a stillness reigns throughout the 
year which to many becomes oppressive, absolutely pain- 
ful ; but to me it is a positive luxury. Here the noise and 
bustle of life are suspended, the days float along as still as 
the flight of a bird in the air, or as smoothly as one of the 
gondolas in which we glide over the surface of the water. 

Thoroughly to enjoy Venice, one must come at the right 
season, and have plenty of time. In midwinter the air is 
too cool to enter into the spirit of the place. In midsum- 
mer, and all through the warm season, the canals are of- 
fensive, reminding one of the streets of Cologne ; and if 
one has been in China, they will slightly remind him of 
the cities of the Celestial Empire. The month of May, 
when the air is* balmy, and just warm enough to enjoy the 
open air without exercise (for exercise here is almost out 
of the question), is, perhaps, the best time of the year. 



438 AROUND THE WORLD. 

And then to take a gondola in front of the Doge's Palace, 
and allow your gondolier to row yon gently into the Grand 
Canal, and through its whole .extent, and give you — as he 
will, if you secure an intelligent gondolier — the name and 
the story of each one of the old marble palaces as you 
glide by it, or pause to read up its history ; to enter these 
ancient halls of the Venetian princes, as you may by a 
suitable introduction ; to bring up the days of the Old Re- 
public, when these water streets were resplendent with na- 
val displays, with gorgeous regattas, and with the magnifi- 
cence of Oriental sights — all this bewilders and delights 
the imagination, until one can scarcely do any thing but 
give way to the intoxicating influence of the scenes and 
associations by which he is surrounded. Even visiting and 
studying the works of art which abound in Venice seem 
almost too much like servile labor for the atmosphere of 
the place. Venice itself is the work of art which each one 
will most delight to contemplate. 

The evening before leaving Venice, after making a call 
on some friends on the Grand Canal, we took a gondola to 
return to aur own hotel. The night was enchanting, and, 
instead of going directly to our quarters, I told the gondo- 
lier to row down the bay toward the Lido. The skies were 
perfectly clear, the stars were out in hosts, looking down 
upon the placid scene ; the water of the ba}^ was literally 
like glass, and, as we returned, the whole city, with its bril- 
liant lights, was reflected from its surface, making two 
perfect cities, one above and one below the sea. Not a 
sound came from the city itself, in which no rumbling 
wheels are ever heard. All was perfect stillness. I di- 
rected the gondolier to rest upon his oars, and leave us to 
float. Just then the great historic bell of San Marco, 
swinging in the lofty Campanile, with its deep-toned voice 
rung out the hour of midnight, and the bells all over the 
city echoed the sound. Was it all a dream ? It was not 
like the common realities of earth. We returned to our 
hotel to dream in truth, and to bring away with us the re- 



VENICE H03IEWABD. 439 

membrance of this last evening as the most appropriate of 
all our pleasant memories of the Queen of the Adriatic. 

Going from Venice to Vienna, we chose the route by rail, 
around the head of the Adriatic, having had enough of the 
sea to satisfy our most earnest longings. From Trieste the 
road leads over the Semmering Pass by one of the grand- 
est pieces of engineering, and through some of the grand- 
est scenery on any railroad in the world. We ascended 
many lofty heights, now passing through dark, rocky gal- 
leries, now rushing along the mountain side, from which 
we had charming views of the valleys beneath us, and anon 
winding down until we were in the very depths of the val- 
leys preparing to ascend other heights beyond. 

Vienna, the splendid capital of the Austrian Empire, 
is becoming more and more magnificent. The internal 
fortifications were razed in 1858 to furnish room for the 
growing city, and piles of buildings have been and are still 
in course of erection. Paris, taken as a whole, is more 
beautiful, but there is no city in all Central or Southern 
Europe that is more magnificent. In the old town the 
streets are narrow; but the new, broad avenues, which 
stretch for miles and encircle the city, are lined with splen- 
did blocks of buildings, giving it the aspect of a city of 
palaces. 

A great change has come over this capital, and over the 
whole empire within the last few years. The Austrian 
government is now carrjdng out the principle which I saw 
inscribed as a motto on one of the arches leading to the 
imperial palace — an inscription which was long a dead let- 
ter — JusTiTiA Regnoeum Fundamentum. The contrast be- 
tween Austria as it was and Austria as it is I have had oc- 
casion to test. A few years since, in crossing the frontier, 
I was taken by the police into a private room, and subject- 
ed to a long and rigid examination in regard to my birth- 
place, my family, my destination, my purposes of travel, 
and many other particulars ; the answers were all commit- 
ted to writinsr and forwarded to Vienna. But now I en- 



4-40 AROUND THE WORLD. 

tered Austria without a question being asked, and traveled 
from one end of it to the other without a challenge. When 
I first entered it, Austria was. in complete subjection to 
Kome. The Concordat was in force. The educational 
system of the country was, by treaty, in the hands of Rom- 
ish priests, whose persons were inviolate, and whose power 
was almost supreme. Austria is now ruled by its own gov- 
ernment. The Concordat with Rome has been dissolved. 
The education of the country has been taken out of the 
hands of the priests, and is directed by the government. 
Romish priests and bishops are now required to obey the 
laws like other citizens, and are sent to prison when they 
violate them. I know not why the priests should decline 
to show themselves, since they enjoy equal protection and 
privileges with others, but I did not see a single one in 
priestly garb in the streets of Yienna during my stay. It 
is not the least of the signs of change that the prime min- 
ister of Austria, whose emperor is a Roman Catholic, is 
himself a thorough Protestant. 

Among all that was to be seen in this splendid capital, 
there was nothing of deeper interest than the crypt of the 
Capucin Church, in which lie tlie remains of a long line of 
emperors and princes. Descending a staircase, we entered 
a long hall, and walked by the side of coffined dust once 
animated by ambitious spirits struggling for empire, but 
now sleeping their long sleep, the turmoil of the battle of 
life all ended with them. The sarcophagi stand in regu- 
lar order upon the pavement of the long corridor like so 
many cots spread for repose at night. The Emperor Ma- 
thias CorvinuSj'Who died at Vienna two years before the 
discovery of the Western Continent by Columbus, was the 
first buried. After him a succession of kings wrapped 
their imperial robes around them, and were laid in this roy- 
al mausoleum. It is a treasure-house of history, and the 
stories of some of the royal occupants are romantic and 
tragic to the last degree. Here lies the Duke of Reich- 
stadt, only son of the first !N^apoleon, who received from his 



VENICE HOMEWARD. 442 

father, at his birth, the title of King of Rome, that proved 
but an empty name. lie closed his melancholy life at the 
palace of Schonbrmm, in the suburbs of Vienna, at the age 
of twenty-one, attended by his mother, Marie Louise. His 
last words were a wail of despair : " I am sinking, oh 
my mother, my mother !" 

But far more tragic was the end of one of the royal 
sleepers in this hall of kings. The last deposited coffin, 
still covered from day to day with fresh flowers, is that of 
the Emperor Maximilian, the tool of Napoleon in the at- 
tem]3ted conquest of Mexico. Sad as was his fate, it is to 
be envied before that of Carlotta, who still lingers in hope- 
less insanity. There are more than eighty coffins in this 
corridor of illustrious dead, one of them — that of Joseph 
I. — of solid silver. It is said that the Empress Maria The- 
resa, mother of the illustrious Joseph II., descended every 
day, for thirteen years, into the crypt to mourn for her hus- 
band Francis I., until at length she was laid by his side. 

A singular precaution against the premature resurrec- 
tion of any of these departed monarchs has been adopted. 
The bodies lie in the crypt of the Church of the Capucins, 
their hearts are deposited in urns in the Church of St. Au- 
gustine not far distant, and their bowels are buried in St. 
Stephen's Cathedral in another part of the city. 

From Vienna we made our way by rail across the battle- 
fields of Austria to one of the most curious cities in Eu- 
rope, and one of the most interesting in its historical inci- 
dents, the ancient capital of Bohemia. Prague is charm- 
ingly situated on both sides of the River Moldau, and the 
variegated surface of the ground on which it is built, es- 
pecially the bluff on which the old palace stands, gives to 
it an exceedingly picturesque appearance. A portion of 
the town is very ancient, and the whole has a more antique 
and unique aspect than any other European city that I can 
recall. I was attracted to Prague by its association with 
the early martyrs of the Reformation — John Huss and his 
associate, Jerome of Prague ; but I found that I had enter- 



442 AEOUND THE WORLD. 

ed a citj that was filled with curious old buildings and 
monuments, and with records of stirring events that occur- 
red all along through the centuries. The Rathaus or Town- 
hall, which has in one of its towers a famous clock that 
rivals the celebrated clock of the Strasbourg Cathedral, was 
the scene of some of these events. As the Hussites, under 
Ziska, were marching through the city in 1419, they were 
assaulted with stones from the Rathaus, when they rushed 
into the council-chamber and threw the councillors, to the 
number of thirteen, out of the windows. They were caught 
upon the pikes of the people. 

This throwing of people out of the windows became so 
common as to acquire the name of " The Bohemian Fash- 
ion." In 1483, the people, dissatisfied with the course of 
the magistrates, entered the Kathaus, pitched the burgo- 
master out of the window, and then threw several of the 
senate down upon the spears of the exj^ectant crowd. 

The Eathaus in the Neustadt was the scene of a similar 
occurrence, the magistrates, on two separate occasions, hav- 
ing been ejected from the windows. Two members of the 
imperial government were thrown from the windows of 
the palace, a height of nearly eighty feet from the ground, 
but, falling on a dung-heap, their lives were saved. Their 
secretary, thrown after them, of course came down atop, 
and is said to have made a humble apology to his superi- 
ors for coming into their jDresence in this unceremonious 
manner. 

Prague was the seat of the observations of the celebrated 
Danish astronomer, Tycho Brahe, who was invited by the 
Emperor Eudolph II. to make the city his home. His ob- 
servatory was on the castle hill, near the ancient palace, 
w4iere his nocturnal study of the heavens was greatly dis- 
turbed by the monks of a neighboring convent ; in conse- 
quence of which, an imperial order was issued that the 
monks should finish their prayers and cease the tolling of 
the bells before the rising of the stars which the astrono- 
mer was intending to watch. 



YENIGB HOMEWABD. 443 

Tlie palace of Count Wallenstein, the hero of the Thirty 
Years' War, though now neglected, was once a princely seat, 
and is said to have been, during the life of that distinguish- 
ed and eccentric warrior, the scene of splendors such as 
have been rarely seen in any regal court. He lived in 
great state ; barons and knights were his attendants, and 
sixty pages of noble families waited on his orders. 

But of all the memories connected with this ancient 
city, none stand out upon the pages of history like those 
associated with John Huss, and his faithful friend and co- 
adjutor, Jerome of Prague. Huss was born in the south 
of Bohemia in the year 1373. He came to Prague to 
pursue his studies in what was then the first university in 
Europe. At that time, it is estimated that as many as 
20,000 students were present from all parts of Europe, 
Here, too, he became acquainted with the writings of 
Wickliffe, and began at once to preach against the errors 
and iniquities of the Church of Kome, and though threat- 
ened, and placed under interdict, and excommunicated, he 
went on with his work, appealing from the pope to a Gen- 
eral Council of the Church, and to Christ, its only Head. 
Summoned to appear before the Council of Constance in 
1414 on a charge of heresy, he obeyed the summons, pro- 
tected, as he had a right to believe, by a safe-conduct from 
the Emperor Sigismund. The emperor was told that a 
promise made to a heretic was not binding, and gave him 
up into the hands of the Council, which condemned him 
and his writings to be burned together. His friend Je- 
rome, who braved all perils, and came to Constance to de- 
fend him, was cast into prison, where, after being reduced 
to utter weakness and the verge of despair by six months 
of solitary confinement, he recanted, but not long after re- 
tracted his recantation, and died heroically at the stake. 

On the 6th of July, 1413, Huss, then forty-two years of 
age, having boldly avowed his firm belief in the Gospel of 
Christ as revealed in the inspired Scriptures, was con- 
demned by the Council to be burned alive. He was strip- 



444 AROUND THE WORLD. 

ped of his priestly garments, and arrayed in fantastic robes 
on which devils were painted, emblematical of the com- 
panionship to which his persecutors would fain consign 
him. While the fagots were piled around him he remain- 
ed perfectly calm, and as the torch was applied, and the 
flames sprang up, he broke forth in a hymn of praise which 
was heard above the noise of the multitude, and, com- 
mending his soul to the Saviour in words of prayer, his 
spirit went aloft in the chariot of fire. His ashes were 
collected and cast into the Rhine, as those of Wickliffe, 
" the morning star" of the Reformation that had guided 
him to Christ, were cast into the Severn. 

Stirring scenes occurred within the city of Prague aft- 
er this noble martyr had given his dying testimony to the 
truth, and his spirit still animates the Bohemian people. 
His name is yet used as a watchword — a sort of synonym 
for liberty, even by those who reject the doctrines of the 
Reformation. I searched out the spot where he lived, and 
found it occupied by a Roman Catholic ; but the house is 
conspicuously marked with a large medallion likeness of 
the great reformer in front, while over the door is the 
following inscription, cut into the stone and gilt : " Here 
lived Master John Huss." The house has been rebuilt, but 
a stone window-frame taken from the former building is 
inserted in the- corridor leading to the court-yard, and in- 
closes a stone tablet with the words, 

A Relic of the House where lived 

MASTER JOHN HUSS, 

Who preached at Betlemske Chapel. 

All clerical titles are denied him — he is simply Master 
John Huss. I found the ancient cha^Del where he preach- 
ed occupied as a carriage-maker's shop. 

By another stage of our journey we were, in the course 
of a few hours, in the former capital of Saxony, a capital 
only in name, since the kingdom has been swallowed up 
in Prussia, and, still later, in the German Empire of to-day. 
Dresden, although charmingly situated on the Elbe, and in 



VENICE HOMEWARD. 445 

the midst of a beautiful champaign, has its chief attrac- 
tions in the right roj^al gallery of paintings, celebrated the 
world over, and in its collections of antiquities and arts, 
many of which are associated with the history of Saxony. 
Not the gem, but the diadem of the collection, is Raphael's 
Madonna del Sisto — an exception to nearly all the Madon- 
nas of fame in the deep thoughtfulness, the almost super- 
womanly look into futurity which marks her countenance. 
Artists, in giving us their ideals of the mother and child, 
have seldom done more than paint the portraits of come- 
ly women and expressionless infants. But one who looks 
upon this masterpiece of Raphael may well imagine the 
mother to be pondering in her heart the deep meaning of 
those prophetic words of Simeon : " Yea, a sword shall 
pierce through thy own soul also." It is a majestic crea- 
tion of the pencil — the queen of the Madonnas. 

It was only two months before the breaking out of hos- 
tilities between France and Prussia when we reached Ber- 
lin. There was not then a whisper of war, not a breath in 
the atmosphere which made one apprehend that such scenes 
of strife were at hand, and yet the whole aspect of things 
was martial. There was military display in the streets. 
There was a grand military review at Potsdam, and at even- 
ing the capital was like a military camp. The people them- 
selves were talking over the old scores with France which 
had never been settled. As we rode out to Charlottenberg 
to see the exquisite statuarj^, by Ranch, which adorns the 
tomb of Frederick William III. and his lovely wife, the 
Queen Louise, whose memory is almost adored by the Prus- 
sians, a German who was witli us gave expression to the 
national hatred of the first Napoleon, and the desire to re- 
dress the insults and injuries which had been heaped upon 
the Prussian royal family and upon the kingdom and ca23- 
ital. But little did we imagine that another Napoleon 
Avould so soon afford the opportunity for avenging these 
wrongs. 

We devoted a day to Wittenberg, long the home of Lu- 



446 AROUND THE WORLD. 

ther, and the scene of some of the most important events 
of the Reformation. It is about sixty miles from Berhn. 
We first went to the Schlosskirche, npon the doors of whicli 
Luther nailed the ninety-five theses, his protest against the 
doctrines of Rome, and a confession of the faith of one who 
had been taught by the Holy Spirit out of the Bible. The 
doors of the church were burned by the French when they 
ravaged Prussia,-but they have been replaced by gates of 
bronze, on which are engraved the whole of the ninety-five 
theses in the original Latin text. With much difficulty we 
obtained the keys, and entered the church to stand within 
the walls which had resounded with the thunders of that 
voice that stirred all Europe, the echoes of which have roll- 
ed over the earth, and will roll onward until time shall be 
no more. Luther and Melancthon were both buried in 
this church. The spot where Luther burned the pope's bull 
of excommunication before an assembly of doctors, stu- 
dents, and citizens, just outside of the Elster Gate, has been 
inclosed, and is carefully kept as an ornamental garden. 
An oak-tree marks the spot where tradition says the bull 
was consumed. The monastery in which the great reform- 
er lived and taught while yet a monk is now a college foi' 
educating Protestant ministers, and the houses occupied by 
Luther and Melancthon are schools. The statues of the 
two reformers — costly and noble works of art — stand in 
the market-place, the former bearing the well-known words, 
in German, " If it be God's work, it will endure ; if man's, 
it will perish." The University building, in which Luther 
lived with his wife Catharine, contains many memorials of 
the reformer, including his chair, the table on which he 
wrote, and the capacious mug from which he drank his 
German beer. Kings and nobles many have stood within 
this room to pay homage to the memory of one who was 
mightier than kings and princes. The sign-manual of Pe- 
ter the Great rudely adorns the wall. 

Another day we devoted to Potsdam, the home of Fred- 
erick the Great, and in his time the real capital of Prussia. 



VENICE HOMEWARD. 447 

It is a cluster of royal palaces, the grounds of which are 
laid out with royal taste and on a magnificent scale. Found- 
ed by Frederick Wilhelm, Elector of Brandenburg, its chief 
glory was imparted to it by the great Frederick, who erect- 
ed its finest buildings and enlarged its parks. Here he in- 
dulged to the utmost his peculiar tastes. The room at the 
chateau of Sans Souci in which he died is preserved in the 
same state as when his spirit departed from it nearly a hun- 
dred years ago. The clock, which stopped the moment at 
which he breathed his last, remains undisturbed, the hands 
pointing to the memorable hour and minute. 

One of the monuments of the place is the famous wind- 
mill. Adjoining the royal grounds was a field, in which 
stood a wind-mill, a sort of vineyard of JSTaboth to the great 
Frederick, who wished to add it to his own parks. The 
miller refused to sell, on which the king brought an action 
in the courts to dispossess him. It was decided against the 
king, who regarded the decision of the judges as so honora- 
ble to the nation that he built for the miller a fine stone 
mill that is still standing, although the grounds have been 
added to the royal domain by purchase. Such triumphs 
are worthy of commemoration by kings and people. 

From Berlin w^e crossed the country to Cologne. The 
city, within the last few ^-ears, has been greatly improved, 
the " two-and-seventy stenches" of Coleridge being reduced 
in number and power, while the perfumery establishments 
have multiplied. Progress has been made in the renova- 
tion of the Cathedral, which is the grandest ecclesiastical 
structure in the world.* St. Peter's, at Rome, is larger and 
more highly adorned with works of art ; the Cathedral at 
Milan is in some respects more beautiful ; but, take it all in 
all, in appropriateness and purity of architecture, in sim- 
plicity and grandeur of effect, in its power of appeal to the 
heart, it is without a rival among all the structures erected 
for Christian worship. 

Disdaining the railway as a profanation of the romance 
of the Rhine, we took the steamer at Cologne to ascend the 



448 



AROUND THE WORLD. 



river, the beauties of which, with the historic tales that 
are written on its rocky heights, and castle walls, and 
crumbling ruins, have been sung for ages, but not exag- 
gerated. 




BINGEN ON TUB KHINE. 



The sun had set and the moon had risen as we passed 
Bingen on the Rhine, and for two or three hours we en- 
joyed the perfection of the romance of this river, which is 
more thickly crowded with legendary interest than any 
other that pours its waters into the sea. As we sat in the 
soft moonlight on the deck of the steamer, tracing the out- 
lines of the lofty heights and catching shadowy glimpses 
of the shores, the nightingales on either bank regaled us 
with their melody, displaying alike their marvelous power 
of song and their exquisite taste in preferring moonlight 



VENICE HOMEWABD. 449 

to sunlight for song. We thought of good Izaak Walton's 
pious ejaculation as he listened to their melod}^, " Lord, 
what music hast thou provided for the saints in lieaven, 
when thou affordest bad men such music on earth !" 

After spending the Sabbath at Majence, we went to 
Worms, recalling, as we entered the city, the time when 
Luther, summoned to appear before the Diet to answer 
to the charge of being a heretic, and to show cause why 
he should not be burned, like Huss and Jerome of Prague, 
made answer to his friends, who dissuaded him from 
trusting himself in the hands of his perfidious enemies, 
"Though there were as many devils in Worms as there 
are tiles on the roofs of the houses, I would go on," and 
boldly entered, chanting the Marseillaise of the Reforma- 
tion, ^'■JEinfeste Burg ist %bnser GottP Here it was that, 
standing up before the Emperor Charles Y. and his nobles, 
and a multitude of Romish prelates, who were eager to 
light the fagots around his body, he boldly defended his 
doctrine, and ended with the declaration, " Let me, then, 
be refuted and convinced by the testimony of the Scrip- 
ture, or by the clearest argument ; otherwise I can not and 
will not recant, for it is neither safe nor expedient to act 
against conscience. Here I stand ; I can not do otherwise ; 
God help me." 

Never, since the Lord Jesus was arraigned before Pon- 
tius Pilate, has there been witnessed on earth a sublimer 
judicial spectacle, or one in which the example of the Mas- 
ter was more nobly illustrated in the bravery of the disci- 
ple, than Luther before the Diet of Worms avowing, in the 
face of all his enemies, the truth of Jesus as revealed in 
his Word. The Episcopal palace in which the Diet was 
held, near the great Cathedral, has disappeared ; but the 
memory of that scene is now preserved in a group of mon- 
umental bronze statuary, erected at great cost, represent- 
ing Luther surrounded by the early reformers of many 
lands — Wickliffe, Huss, Savonarola, etc. — and the faithful 
electors who stood by him while alive. The group stands 

Ff 



450 AROUND THE WOBLD. 

upon an elevated stone terrace in the open air, at the en- 
trance to a park or garden, embracing a secluded ravine, 
in the deep shade of which, even at noonday, the nightin- 
gales were pouring forth their sweetest lays. 

From Worms we reached French territory at the town 
of Weissenberg, where our baggage was overhauled by the 
officials. This little town, a few weeks later, took its place 
in history as the spot where the French and Prussian ar- 
mies first met in deadly conflict, but as we halted on our 
way it had no presage of its coming distinction. All was 
smiling and peaceful. An hour later we were at Stras- 
bourg. By a singular but undesigned coincidence, I found 
it was fifteen yeai'S to a day, and almost to an hour, since 
I had entered it once before. The town was not a little 
changed in the mean while, having lost a measure of its 
quaintness ; but no amount of polish or paint could make 
a French city of it. It was German still, and will be more 
at home in Germany than in France, whether the inhab- 
itatants are at home or not. 

"We tarried at Strasbourg over a day to see the grand 
Cathedral, with its wondrous clock. The Cathedral, as a 
specimen of Gothic architecture, is not far behind that of 
Cologne. It is melancholy to know that this monument 
of many centuries suffered so much in the siege. That it 
did not suffer more was marvelous. The famous clock, a 
wonder of mechanism, was but slightly injured. We paid 
a visit to the Protestant Church of St. Thomas to see the 
group of statuary erected by Louis XY. in memory of 
Marshal Saxe — a noble monument to a noble Protestant 
by a Catholic king. The marshal was represented as de- 
scending into the tomb ; Death, in the form of a skeleton, 
stood lifting the lid of the coffin for his reception ; while 
France, in the form of a beautiful female weeping, w^as 
holding the hero back dissuasively. Other emblematical 
devices completed the group. The church and its monu- 
ments were reported as destroyed in the siege. 

The afternoon before we left Strasbourg we took a walk 



VENICE HOMEWARD. ^5 2 

outside of the fortifications on the north, and, seating our- 
selves in the fine old park which stretched out into the 
country, we speculated more in a sentimental than a seri- 
ous way upon the effects of war. The great fortress which 
incloses the city very naturally suggested such thoughts ; 
but, in the total absence of every thing intimating the possi- 
bility of war as near, our sympathy was mainly expended 
upon the venerable trees under the shade of which we were 
resting. They looked as if they might have been standing 
there for centuries. We lamented that, if war should ever 
come into these parts, one of the first measures of defence 
would be the leveling of every one of those majestic mon- 
archs of the soil, all which was done very shortly after we 
had left the city. 

It was but a few weeks before the French army came 
into tile region throwing down the gage, and then com- 
menced that series of disasters to their arms that has sel- 
dom, if ever, had a parallel in the history of European wars. 
Strasbourg was surrounded by a besieging force, and one 
after another of its buildings and monuments disappeared 
in the long and fierce bombardment. The hotel at which 
we had lodged was demolished, and the faithful porter who 
waited on us, and attended us to the cars as we M^ere leav- 
ing, I afterward learned, had his head carried off by a can- 
non ball as he was going his nightly round of inspection, 
lantern in hand. 

Our way to Paris was through Nancy, Bar le Due, Cha- 
lons, and other places that became famous in the progress 
of the war, and through the beautiful champaign that was 
soon devastated by the opposing armies. It was then cov- 
ered with luxuriant crops that were smiling in the sum- 
mer's sun, but they were not gathered before the iron heel 
pressed them into the soil. As the terrific confiict went on, 
and the forces of both armies drew all the while nearer to 
the French capital, we read the accounts with deeper inter- 
est and more intense sympathy from having so lately seen 
the fields smiling with the promise of a peaceful harvest^ 



452 AROUND THE WORLD. 

and the cities rejoicing in the quiet and plenty which were 
to pass away and be succeeded by scenes of blood. 

Paris was more gay and beautiful than ever. Twenty 
years of rebuilding under Louis Napoleon, with the purse 
of the nation at command, had made it the most splendid 
city in the world. Its palaces and boulevards, its parks 
and public buildings, its residences and shops, were never 
so attractive, nor was the city ever thronged with so gay a 
crowd. There were no signs of the coming storm ; all was 
the luxury, the intoxication of peace. The wickedness of 
the city was more unrestrained than I had ever seen it — 
less garnished with the outward covering of pi^opriety, but 
no one dreamed that its doom was so close at hand, or that 
the empire was about to commit suicide by plunging into 
war. Much sooner should 1 have predicted revolution in 
Paris than war on the frontier. In the shops, on the streets, 
and in social circles, curses deep, but not loud, were heard 
against the emperor whose ambition and extravagance had 
run their race with the French nation, notwithstanding he 
had done so much to gratify French vanity. Louis Napo- 
leon never had the hearts of the people ; they never really 
believed in him, and they were becoming weary of his iron 
though brilliant rule. The change in popular feeling was 
strikingly perceptible — it was scarcely concealed, and was 
the subject of general remark among foreigners who had 
been familiar with Paris in the former years of his reign. 

Weeks passed quickly away in recovering from the fa- 
tigues of nearly a year's journeying ; in the society of 
fi'iends who were gathering from the Continent and from 
home ; in excursions here and there in and around Paris ; 
and in doing nothing ; and then we crossed the Channel to 
sojourn for a little season in merry England, and to enjoy 
the scenery of Scotland and Ireland. 

An excursion of two days in the Isle of Wight, made 
from London, I shall ever recall among the most pleasing 
memories of British soil. The island is a beautiful garden ; 
some of its scenery, especially the cliffs upon the sea-shore, 



VENICE HOMEWARD. 453 

in the highest degree picturesque and striking ; the ruins 
of Carisbrooke Castle furnish the romance and history ; 
and the scenes which have been recorded by the pen of 
Legh Richmond are invested v^^ith a sacred interest scarce- 
ly equaled in any other localities outside of the Holy Land. 
No one who has read his Annals of the Poor — among the 
most touching and instructive of human biographies, sim- 
ple though they are — can fail to appreciate a visit to the 
cottage of the Dairyman's Daughter, and to the home and 
the grave of Little Jane. 

Taking it leisurely through the interior of England, go- 
ing here and there as inclination led us, and stopping now 
and then as attraction held us, at Oxford, Stratf ord-on-Avon, 
Kenilworth, Chatsworth, and many other places of interest, 
we at length reached the Tweed, and made another pilgrim- 
age to the home and the haunts of Sir Walter Scott. We 
pansed again at Edinburg, appropriately styled the mod- 
ern Athens. Its location, in regard to land and sea, is strik- 
ingly like that of the Grecian capital, its monuments are 
not unworthy of the ancient city, and it has long embodied 
much of the learning of Britain. 

Fresh in our hearts shall we ever keep the memory of 
the days we spent in the hospitable homes of the ancient 
kingdom of Fife, among the associations of the early days 
of Chalmers, where our time for sojourning was so short 
that we almost wished We had there begun instead of end- 
ing our travels. But the days would not wait upon us, and 
leaving reluctantly those delightful circles of friends, we 
made the tour of the Trosachs and the Lakes. From 
Glasgow we crossed the L-ish Channel, ended our wander- 
ings on land by journeying through the Emerald Isle, and 
took the steamer for home. 

Gladly would we have avoided the Atlantic had there 
been any other way of reaching home. Long ago did I 
come to be of the same opinion with one of the Catos of 
ancient Home. As he was drawing near his end, he said 
there were three regrets still lying on his mind. The first 



454 AROUND THE WOULD. 

was, that he had spent a day without bringing any thing 
good to pass ; the second, that he had once intrusted a se- 
cret to a woman (in wliicli I differ from him toto coda) ; 
but the third regret was one that has always commanded 
my profound respect for tlie old Roman since first I was 
rocked in the cradle of the deep — that once in his lifetime 
he had made a journey by sea when he could have gone 
by land. Had there been any way to make the journey 
around the world by land, I should have avoided all the 
seas. Not that I have any fear of the ocean ; nor am I 
called upon, like most voyagers, to pay tribute to Neptune ; 
but I greatly prefer the solid earth. 

With the exception of the China Seas, we found the 
winds and the waves nowhere so inhospitable as on the At- 
lantic. It was the month of July — the month and year of 
the extremest heat recorded on our shores, but, between 
northerly winds and the icebergs, we suffered intensely with 
the cold. Not until we had crossed the Banks was there a 
day on which it was mild enough to enjo}^ the deck. The 
voyage was boisterous and protracted, a perfect contrast to 
our experience on the Pacific. 

But every voyage, not excepting that of life, must have 
its close. Tlie familiar shores at length appeared, and we 
hailed Columbia, the sight of which was never so dear as 
when, after having tossed upon so many seas, and wander- 
ed in so many lands, the highlands of the coast, and then 
the green shores of the harbor, and then the spires of the 
city of New Tork rose into view. 

And here we are at home again. Thanks to the kind 
Providence which has been over us in all the perils of the 
land and of the sea. And more thankful than ever shall 
we be that this land is our home. Each country that we 
have seen has its own peculiar features and its own attrac- 
tions, but nowhere have we found such a combination of 
all that makes a country attractive in scenery and desirable 
as a life-long residence : majestic mountains and broad 
prairies, wide -spreading lakes and rivers navigable for 



VENICE HOMEWARD. 455 

thousands of miles, grand old forests and magnificent wa- 
terfalls, boundless mineral resources of every kind, all the 
varieties of climate, and the fruits of the earth poured out 
vf'ith a profusion scarcely imagined in any other part of the 
world. If we have learned nothing more in our wander- 
ings, we have learned to appreciate our own country, and to 
be thankful to Him who " hath made of one blood all na- 
tions for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath de- 
termined the bounds of their habitation," for the goodly 
heritage he hath given us. The American who can travel 
abroad and not have his admiration for his own land in- 
creased can have seen but little of it, and is equally to be 
pitied with him who can see nothing good or beautiful in 
other lands. 

Here evermore may our home be, until our journey ings 
on earth shall come to an end, and we take our departure 
to " a better country — that is, an heavenly." 



THE END. 



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